


Harley's Return to Gotham

by LittleMissZatanna



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Harley Quinn (Cartoon 2019), Harley Quinn (Comics)
Genre: F/F, Organized Crime, Supervillains
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:54:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29589603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMissZatanna/pseuds/LittleMissZatanna
Summary: After being away from Gotham for quite some time, Harley Quinn and her friends return only to find that the city is wrapped in the middle of a gang war between three factions.
Relationships: Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel, Selina Kyle/Margaret Pye
Comments: 7
Kudos: 16





	1. Welcome Back, Harley

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So after some thinking about it, I finally decided to add a third instalment to my Harley Quinn series. But I will try to make this as friendly to new readers as possible. All you really need to know is that at Harley has been away from Gotham for a while and also C-list villain Magpie is part of the Gotham City Sirens now and is sort of dating Selina. I'll also give a quick rundown of the characters before we begin.
> 
> **Main Cast:**
> 
> **Harley Quinn:** Harleen Quinzel aka Harley Quinn, former psychiatrist driven insane due to an obsession with the Joker. Eventually left Joker and began dating Poison Ivy.
> 
> **Poison Ivy:** Pamela Isley aka Poison Ivy, former botanist turned into a half-plant hybrid after being experimented on by a man named Jason Woodrue. Currently dating Harley.
> 
> **Catwoman:** Selina Kyle aka Catwoman, master thief and on-again off-again girlfriend of Batman. In this universe is dating Magpie.
> 
> **Magpie:** Margaret Pye aka Magpie, a kleptomaniac with a fixation on shiny objects. In this universe is dating Selina.
> 
>   
>  **Featured This Chapter:**
> 
> **The Carpenter:** Jenna Duffy aka the Carpenter, a small time crook once hired by the Mad Hatter to be part of his gang. Later turned into a semi-legitimate business woman and has a friendship with the girls.
> 
> **White Rabbit:** White Rabbit, an enigmatic albino woman who inexpiably runs around causing chaos in her lingerie. A very minor character in the comics but will be somewhat featured in this story.

For the past several months, Harley Quinn had been having the time of her life. A little while ago, Harley was forced to leave Gotham city due to some circumstances beyond her control. Luckily for her she had several friends of hers to come with her. First there was Poison Ivy, her longtime friend and more recently her girlfriend. Then there was Selina Kyle, a good friend to both Harley and Ivy. Finally there was the newest addition to their group, one Margaret Pye, alias Magpie. Despite a little odd behaviour from her, she fit in with the girls just fine and Harley had accepted her into her friend group with open arms.

Over the past few months the girls had been to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Mexico City, Berlin and Paris. They got into a bit of trouble along the way but managed to get out of it relatively unscathed.

Now, several months later, the four of them were making their grand return to Gotham City. Since the four of them were all known criminals, they couldn't exactly book a plane back. And they were a bit too short on cash to buy any fake passports. So they decided to return to Gotham by stowing away on a cargo ship.

They'd set up something of a small bedroom in the storage area of the ship and occasionally snuck up to steal from the kitchen. But after being at sea for so long, they'd finally reached the last day they had to be like that.

On this particular morning, Harley was up and about reading a book she'd brought with her while Selina was off gathering breakfast. Ivy was still fast asleep and Magpie was lying in a hammock, half paralyzed with sea sickness.

"Ugh… How much longer until we get to Gotham…" Magpie whimpered.

"Aww, does your tummy hurt again?" Harley looked up from her book.

"Yes…" Magpie groaned. "I hate sea travel…"

Harley closed her book and went over to Magpie's hammock. "Anything I can do to help?"

"No… Just leave me alone." Magpie sighed.

"Okay. Hope ya feel better." Harley nodded.

She returned to reading her book and a few minutes later, Selina returned to their hiding spot carrying a plastic bag with her.

"Hey girls, I have some stuff to eat." Selina said.

"Ooh, yay." Harley smiled.

Selina put down the bag and Harley began searching through it. Before Selina had a chance to enjoy any for herself she noticed Magpie in the hammock. So she went over there to check on her. "Hey Mags, you gonna be alright?"

"No… I hate everything right now…" Magpie groaned.

"Well don't you worry, we'll be back home soon." Selina kissed Magpie on the cheek.

Magpie blushed a little and kissed Selina back. "Thanks…" During their time together, Magpie and Selina had developed something of a romantic relationship. Magpie was a little shy about it but Selina was completely comfortable with it. "God I hope we get to land soon… I can't take any more of this."

"Just try to nap like Ivy's doing, it's how she deals with seas sickness." Selina said.

"I'll try…" Magpie nodded and closed her eyes.

Several hours later the boat had docked and the quartet of girls had stealthily departed from it. The smell of pollution and fish told them they were indeed at the Gotham harbour. They were finally home.

"Ah, good old Gotham! I never thought I'd miss ya!" Harley cheered, taking a deep breath. "I guess Dorothy was right, there's no place like home."

"Weren't you born in New York?" Selina pointed out.

"Home ain't where you're born, it's the place ya love most." Harley said. "And I sure as hell love this old town."

"Well Harls, let's get back to the old apartment then." Ivy smiled and put an arm around Harley. "I'm dying to sleep in my own bed again."

"Mmm, me too." Harley giggled. "Especially if I'll be snuggled up with you in that bed."

"We'll be doing a lot more than snuggling in bed." Ivy kissed Harley on the lips.

"Do you two have to talk abotu sex all the time?" Magpie sighed.

"What can I say, I'm just naturally horny." Harley giggled.

The two of them continued to flirt and joke with each other all the way home. They made it back to Ivy's apartment building. The smell of drywall and air fresheners never felt more comforting. Even the perpetual ball of stress Magpie felt a bit relieved being back there.

The four of them took the elevator up to Ivy's floor and were all preparing to relax, watch some TV and maybe order a pizza for dinner. Ivy went up to the door of her apartment and took out her key. However, things did not go according to plan. When Ivy went to go put in the key she found it wouldn't fit no matter how hard she forced it.

The girls noticed Ivy's struggling and it was Selina who first stepped in. "What's the matter Ivy? Have the wrong key?"

"Either that or my landlady changed the locks while we were away… I could've sworn we were sending her those rent payments…" Ivy muttered to herself. "Let me just check for the spare key." She bent over and looked under the doormat only to find nothing there. "Okay… I am going to have a few choice words for Jenna when I find her."

"Are you sure we haven't been evicted?" Magpie asked.

"If we have been, I'm going to be very pissed off." Ivy groaned. "Okay, I'm going to knock on this door and if someone answers it, I'm probably going to yell at them." Taking a deep breath, Ivy then knocked at the door firmly and waited a few moments.

About twenty seconds passed before the sound of the door unlocking from the inside was heard. The door slowly opened and on the other side was a woman with long dark hair and brown skin. "Oh, hello. I think you have the wrong address."

"No, we don't." Ivy's eyes narrowed at the stranger. "This is my apartment."

"How can it be your apartment? I've been living here for months." the woman said.

"And just who the hell are you?" Ivy crossed her arms.

"I'm Jaina Hudson. I own this building. And several others in the neighborhood. Who are you?" the woman said.

"You own- What?" Ivy paused for a moment. "What happened to Jenna?"

"Oh, Ms. Duffy? I bought this place from her a few months ago." Jaina shrugged. "Now if you'll excuse me I was about to take a bath." She began turning around and closing her door only for Ivy to lunge forward and grab her.

"Listen here you bitch, this is my house!" Ivy yelled.

"Um, Pamela, is this a good idea?" Magpie spoke up.

"Shut up!" Ivy snapped, gripping Jaina harder. "I am not going to take this.."

Jaina fished a small device out of her pocket and pressed a button on it several times. "No… You are going to take it. And I suggest you leave my building and never come back."

Mere moments later several tall muscular men in suits came over to the girls and grabbed them. Harley, Ivy and Selina allowed themselves to be escorted away peacefully but Ivy thrashed around.

"Bye now everyone, and please don't come back." Jaina waved to them.

"This is so humiliating…" Harley sighed.

"Let's just not cause a bigger scene than what's already happened." Selina whispered. "You girls can crash at my place until further notice."

"Good idea…" Magpie nodded.

About a minute later the girls had been carried out to the street by the goons Jaina had as security.

"Well… That was embarrassing." Ivy said. "What should we do now?"

"I say we go find Jenna and ask her what the hell happened." Harley replied.

"Good idea…" Ivy nodded. "This wasn't what I expected when I returned to Gotham."

"Jenna's carpentry place is in the neighborhood." Selina said. "Let's check for her there."

"She has a lot to answer for." Ivy snarled.

"Ives, c'mon, let's try to stay positive, okay?" Harley smiled at Ivy.

"I'll do my best, Harls…" Ivy sighed. "Sometimes it's difficult though."

From there the four women followed Selina down the street a few blocks to where she remembered Jenna having her shop. Sure enough, they found a humble storefront that said 'Duffy Carpentry' on a sign.

"Alright girls, here we are." Selina said.

"Jenna has a lot of questions to answer for." Ivy took the lead and entered the shop. She pushed through the front doors where she immediately saw her landlady, one Jenna Duffy standing behind a counter. Around the shop were many woodworking and furniture for sale. But Ivy didn't care about any of that. She just wanted to have a chat with Jenna.

It was then that Jenna saw Ivy approaching her. "Oh, hey girls! Man, it's been forever since I've seen you."

"Not the time for pleasantries, Duffy." Ivy stormed up to the counter and grabbed Jenna by the collar of her shirt. "Now, tell me, what happened to our apartment?"

"Ohh… Right, that…" Jenna trailed off. "Well, um, I was convinced to sell it off."

"And why was that?" Ivy began pulled Jenna across the counter.

Jenna nervously looked past Ivy. "L-look, I understand that you're angry. Come with me to the back room, girls. I can explain everything."

Ivy took a deep breath and finally let Jenna go. "Alright, you'd better."

Jenna nodded and hurried to the front of the store, turning off the open sign and locking up behind her. While she did that the other girls went behind the counter and into the back room of the store which served as both Jenna's carpentry workshop and her break room for when she wasn't out front. The girls found some chairs and a couch to seat themselves on.

Moments later Jenna entered the backroom and turned on some lights. "Okay, so, I just want to say I'm sorry that you don't have a house anymore. But just know, selling off the apartment wasn't my idea."

"Really? How so?" Ivy asked.

"Have you heard of a woman named Jaina Hudson? Dad's a diplomat, mom's an actress. Now she has a small stake in Gotham's real estate business." Jenna explained. "And, well, her and her goons sort of strong-armed me into selling the place."

"Yeah, we ran into her." Selina nodded. "She's living in what used to be Ivy's apartment. You know, the big one on the top floor."

"She had those goons you mentioned kick us out." Magpie remarked. "But jokes on them, I stole one of their shiny pins…" She took a small decorative pin and examined it.

"Wait a minute… Can I see that?" Jenna asked. She took a few steps closer to Magpie. "When Jaina was intimidating me into selling the place I noticed her security was wearing those strange pins. Couldn't figure out what they were though."

"No, it's my shiny…" Magpie held it close to her.

"Maggie, what did I tell you about being less possessive." Selina gently held Magpie's sarm.

"Fine…" Magpie gave the pin she'd taken to Jenna.

"Thanks. I'm just gonna take a look at this and I'll give it back." Jenna looked at the strangely shaped pin. It reminded her of an ink blot or some sort of symmetrical piece of abstract art.

Harley looked around a bit before speaking up. "So, uh, where do we live now? We don't have an apartment anymore."

"Well, I still have an apartment." Selina said. "I gave my landlord a call just before we got on the boat. You girls can stay with me. I've got a big bed and a couch that folds out into a bed. So we should be good."

"Good luck to you girls." Jenna nodded. "Let's keep in touch, okay? I like you a lot."

"Aww, thanks!" Harley giggled. "The feeling's mutual."

"No it's not." Ivy said.

"Well, for me it is." Harley shrugged.

*******

After saying their goodbyes to Jenna, the girls made their way across town over to Selina's apartment. Unlike with Ivy, the key to her apartment worked just fine and they were able to get inside with no issue.

Selina sighed with relief as she entered and heard the happy mewling of several of her cats. A fluffy white furred cat approached her and Selina bent down to greet them. "Looks like Holly kept you all well fed again. Wonderful…" She pet the cat before turning around to face her friends. "So girls, make yourself at home. I'll run out to the store to stock up on groceries in a bit."

"Is there anywhere I can lie down?" Magpie asked. "I'm tired and just wanna melt into a puddle."

"You'll be sharing a bedroom with me, don't worry." Selina took Magpie by the hand. "C'mon, let's go."

Magpie let out a small, tired whine as Selina led her through the living room and into the bedroom. They got to Selina's bedroom where several cats were lying on the bed.

"Don't mind the cats." Selina smiled. "They're very friendly."

"Let's hope so." Magpie took off her shirt and pants, getting on the bed and getting under the covers.

"Hopefully you can get some rest." Selina kissed Magpie on the cheek and patted her on the head. "If you need me, I'll be in the shower."

Back out in the living room, Harley and Ivy were making themselves at home. They'd laid down on the couch together and were mindlessly flipping through the TV channels in the hopes of finding something good. The sun was beginning to set over the city so Harley was holding out until some late night TV came on.

"So Harls,, how does it feel to be back in Gotham?" Ivy held Harley by the hand.

"Real great… I mean, it was nice to take a vacation but gosh… Bein' back here feels like I finally got a part of my heart back." Harley sighed happily. "Sorry if that's too sentimental for ya, but it's true. I wanna go out to a hot dog stand and then hang out at the boardwalk. Gosh it's good to be home..."

"You're so sweet." Ivy held Harley's hand and gave her a squeeze. "I'm glad to be back too. As much as I say I hate humans and want plants to rule the world, the truth is I'm a person just like you. And being back home does feel good."

"Aww, you're super sweet too." Harley giggled and hugged Ivy close to her.

The two of them stayed up late together, watching TV and chatting until they both decided it was time to go to sleep and pulled out the fold-out bed. Hours passed through the night as they slept peacefully. But things changed at around 2AM. The girls were awoken by the sound of wind blowing in through an open window and boots walking across the floor.

Harley became fully conscious first and she saw something she didn't expect to see in Selina's living room. Standing in front of her was a pale skinned woman with equally white hair dressed in nothing but a white corset, matching thigh high boots and dress gloves, a pink thong and a domino mask with bunny ears attached.

"What the… Ah jeez am I having a wet dream?" Harley muttered.

"Afraid not, lovely." the scantily clad woman said, leaning against the TV.

By now Ivy was awake and saw the strangely dressed intruder. "Harley… Did you order a stripper to welcome us back?"

"I wish." Harley shook her head.

"Hello girls. You may call me the White Rabbit." the woman smirked. "I guess you could say I'm part of the welcoming committee."

Harley blinked the sleep out of her eyes and stood up. "Uh huh… Welcoming us where? Gotham? We've lived here for years. We're just comin' back."

"Maybe I wasn't clear. Welcoming committee was a euphemism." White Rabbit took a few steps closer to Harley. "I was sent here to give you a warning."

"Uh huh…" Harley chose to take a step back. "What kind of warning?"

"A warning to stay out of the way of my boss or very bad things will happen." White Rabbit replied.

"And who's your boss?" Harley asked.

"I'm not supposed to tell. My sister just gives me messages from him." White Rabbit shrugged. "But I do know that if you cross him, bad things will happen."

"Can you stop being such a cryptic bitch?" Ivy groaned, crossing her arms.

"Sorry sugar, it's my job." White Rabbit turned around which was when Harley noticed she had a fluffy bunny tail attached to the back of her thong. "Well, bye now." She hummed to herself and crawled out the open window she came in.

"Harley am I dreaming right now?" Ivy asked.

"Uh, no. I don't think so." Harley replied.

"Right… So did an underwear model just break into Selina's apartment to threaten us?"

"Yes. Yes, she did."

"Okay just checking. I'm going back to bed." Ivy lay back down on the couch-bed.

"Should we tell Mags and Selina about this?" Harley asked.

"In the morning…" Ivy muttered. "I'm too tired to deal with this shit right now."

"Fair enough…" Harley sighed and lay down as well. "Y'know… I'm startin' to realize why we took a break from Gotham."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This first chapter was relatively short, I plan the others to be longer. So think of this as somewhat of a prologue. I hope to have the next chapter out fairly soon.


	2. Power Players

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **This Chapter's Featured Characters:**
> 
> **Two-Face:** Harvey Dent aka Two-Face, former district attorney turned mob boss following an incident in court where he was horribly scarred.
> 
> **The Penguin:** Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin, Gotham City businessman and crimelord with an obsession with birds.
> 
> **Maxie Zeus:** Maximillian "Maxie" Zeus is a Gotham crimelord who believes himself to literally be the Greek God who he shares his namesake with. He did appear in the Harley Quinn cartoon however I'm basing his appearance here more off his comic and Batman the Animated Series incarnation.

Harley's first night back in Gotham City had not been a good one. First she'd found out that Ivy's old apartment was no longer under her ownership. Then, after setting up shop at Selina's apartment, she was woken up in the middle of the night by a woman dressed in lingerie. Usually, this would be sexy. But in this case it was a little more disconcerting since this woman was making some vaguely threatening statements towards Harley.

When morning came, Harley decided it was probably a good idea to tell the other girls about what happened. Selina woke up before the other girls in the morning and had decided to put together some coffee and bacon for the girls when they woke up.

By the time she'd finished putting it all together, Harley, Ivy and Magpie were all awake and soon enough the four women were at the breakfast table eating together.

"So everyone, how did you sleep last night?" Selina asked after sipping on her coffee.

"Pretty well." Magpie remarked. "It was very cozy in your room…" She smiled at Selina.

"Mmm, thank you." Selina blew a kiss at Magpie.

"Um, me and Red had a less restful night." Harley spoke up. "It ain't cause the bed was uncomfortable though, that was fine."

"So what kept you up?" Selina asked.

"Well, not to panic you or anything, but some lady broke into the apartment last night." Harley explained. "She was dressed in her underwear. Called herself the White Rabbit. It was weird."

"What did she do?" Selina asked. "Should I be worried?"

"She kinda threatened us." Ivy explained. "Told us to stay out of the way of her boss. Of course, she didn't actually seem to know who her boss was."

"Well… I'll have to look into this." Selina said. "Thanks for letting me know about this. Whoever this White Rabbit character is, they seem like bad news."

From there the girls at their breakfast in relative silence, with only the occasional small talk. But when the girls were just about done with breakfast there came a knock at the door.

Magpie got up from the table and went to answer it. When she opened the door she saw Jenna Duffy, Ivy's old landlady, on the other side.

"Oh hey there!" Magpie smiled. "Do you have my pin back?"

"Um, yes." Jenna nodded. "I figured out some stuff about it too." She nervously looked around. "Can I come in? I'd like to explain things to you better."

"Yeah, sure." Magpie nodded and stepped to the side. "I think there's some coffee left for you to drink."

"I got a coffee on the way over here, but thanks." Jenna closed the door behind her and locked it.

"Oh, hello Jenna." Selina waved to her. "I wasn't expecting to see you here this morning."

"What brings you here exactly?" Ivy asked.

"Well, I found out what that weird pin Magpie stole means." Jenna said.

"Ooh, exciting." Harley giggled a little. "What's it mean?"

Jenna sat down at the table with the other girls. She placed the pin down on the table. "Well, um, I'm not sure you're gonna like it. The pin is meant to resemble the head of the Roman God, Janus. Do you girls know anything about Janus?"

"Not really. I don't really keep up with Roman gods." Ivy remarked.

"Well, I didn't know much about him either until I started doing research." Jenna said. "See, this is important, Janus was a god with two faces. One on the front, like most people, and then one on the back of his head."

"Wait a minute, are you saying Two-Face is connected to that lady who took over my apartment?" Ivy asked.

"Either him or Maxie Zeus. Maybe both." Jenna nodded. "You know, on the way over here I noticed a lot more guys wearing these pins. Whoever this pin is supposed to represent, I've got a feeling they've kinda taken over this neighborhood."

"Alright… Do you think this is connected to a lady running around dressed like a stripper?" Harley asked.

"Um, what?" Jenna stared at Harley for a moment.

"Last night, some lady dressed like a stripper broke into the apartment and kinda vaguely threatened me. It was weird." Harley said. "Called herself White Rabbit." She paused for a moment. "Say, you used to work with the Mad Hatter, right Jenna? Was there ever a White Rabbit in your gang?"

"No, we had a March Hare but never a White Rabbit." Jenna shook her head. "Do you think she's connected to this pin thing?"

"I dunno, maybe." Harley shrugged. "For now though, we definitely have one solid link. Jaina Hudson."

"Oh yeah, the bitch living in my apartment." Ivy crossed her arms.

"The guys with the pins were working for her, so she might be involved in all of this." Selina nodded along.

"Wanna go investigate then?" Magpie asked.

"You know I do!" Harley cheered. "You girls in?"

"Um, I'm out." Jenna quickly stood up. "I don't do this supervillain thing anymore."

"Well, I'm in." Ivy said.

"Same here." Selina nodded.

"Awesome, I'll go get things set up and we'll give Ms. Hudson a nice visit." Harley smirked. "Man, I still can't say it enough. It's good to be back!"

*******

Throughout the rest of the day things proceeded mostly as normal. But when night fell the girls all got into their usual supervillain costumes and made their way across the neighborhood over to the apartment Jaina Hudson was staying at. The four of them ended up perched atop a building just across from it to see if they could observe things from the outside.

Selina looked at the place through some binoculars and tried to figure some things out. "Okay… Looks like Jaina's got some more of those goods guarding her place. She seems paranoid."

"Well she has good reason to be." Ivy remarked. "We are planning to break in."

"Seems to me the best infiltration point would be the balcony." Selina remarked. "She's got a guard stationed up there but he should be pretty easy to take out."

"What's the plan once we get in there exactly?" Magpie asked. "I wasn't totally clear on that."

"We interrogate her, find out what her role in all this is. Y'know, that kinda deal." Harley explained.

"So, think we're ready to infiltrate?" Ivy asked.

"Think so." Selina nodded. "She's a crooked real estate lady, how tough could she be?"

"Alrighty! Let's move in girls!" Harley cheered before pausing for a moment. "Um, how do we get to the balcony from here?"

"Leave that part to me." Selina took a device off her belt.

Ivy leaned in to inspect it and saw it had a Bat Symbol on it that had been sprayed over. "Did you steal that from Batman?"

"We hooked up one night and, well, I figured he had more of these at home and it looked like a useful tool to have." Selina held up the device in front of her. "See, what you do is you aim it and it creates a zipline for you. Pretty neat, right?"

"Awesome, let's do it!" Harley jumped up and down in excitement.

Selina gave a nod of affirmation and fired the zipline gun, sending two ropes of thick wire out the front and back of it until they both hooked into a wall. The man standing on Jaina's balcony immediately noticed it. Selina acted fast and slid down the zipline until she kicked the man in the face, knocking him into the wall and into unconsciousness. She gave the other girls a thumbs up and they slid down the line onto the balcony as well.

"Alright everyone, ready to move in?" Selina whispered. "We need to act fast and take out the guards."

"Right, let's go." Ivy nodded.

With that the four of them burst through the balcony doors and into the apartment proper. When they got into the apartment it was immediately clear that Jaina had done a lot of redecorating. The inside was clean and spotless with a very minimalist approach to design with abstract art hanging on the walls and a colour scheme consisting of mostly whites and blues.

"Huh… So this is what the place looks like when you clean it." Harley whispered to herself.

The four of them didn't have too much time to properly admire the apartment. They soon realized that Jaina Hudson was in the apartment's dining room eating dinner. She stared at them in complete shock for several moments before shouting. "Security! We have some trespassers that need to be dealt with!"

"Uh, hold on now we're just here to talk." Harley spoke up.

"Yeah, not talking to weirdos." Jaina shook her head as several men in suits entered the room.

"Alright fine, we'll do it the hard way then." Ivy sighed. "Let's go."

With that a fight broke out between Jaina's security team and the girls. Harley and her friends made short work of the goons. They weren't used to fighting people as acrobatic as the girls so with a few will placed kicks and hits they went down easily.

Seeing how easily her team was taken out Jaina sighed and stood up. "Do I have to do everything here myself?" She reached into her pocket and pulled out a delicate looking white glove.

Harley lunged at Jaina only for a sudden flash of light to emanate from her. She closed her eyes to shield herself from the blinding light. When the light faded standing right next to Jaina was the White Rabbit. With the two of them standing next to each other it became obvious that they were both identical. The main difference, despite White Rabbit being basically half naked, was how unnaturally pale White Rabbit was.

"Oh you've gotta be kidding me, this is the boss you warned me about?" Harley sighed, gesturing at both Jaina and White Rabbit.

"No, silly." White Rabbit shook her head. "Jaina's more like… My sister."

"That's right, Rabbit." Jaina nodded. "And right now, I want my little sister to deal with these intruders."

"You got it!" White Rabbit leapt forward and gave Harley a swift kick in the chest, knocking her back.

With White Rabbit having made the first move the other girls spring into action. Selina got out her whip and attempted to use it on White Rabbit only for her to jump out of the way and roundhouse kick her in the side.

Ivy attempted to make a move next and attempted to bring a nearby houseplant to life only to find out that it was made of plastic. "Oh shit…" White Rabbit then hit Ivy in the gut before tripping her up.

While White Rabbit was preoccupied with fighting Ivy, Magpie attempted to sneak up on her. She slashed at White Rabbit with her clawed gloves and actually managed to cut her slightly, tearing through part of her corset.

"Oh! You naughty girl!" White Rabbit giggled and quickly turned around to punch Magpie in the face, knocking her down instantly. For such a lithe woman, she hit like a professional boxer.

All four girls were lying on the ground. Harley attempted to get up only to be kicked down again by White Rabbit. "Nice try!"

Jaina got closer to the girls and smirked. "Alright, have you learned your lesson?"

"Fuck you…" Ivy mumbled from the ground.

"Guess not." Jaina mockingly put a foot on top of Selina to keep her down. "Now girls, let's talk. Why are you here?"

"We… We have some questions for you." Harleuy said. She began to stand up only to have White Rabbit push her back down. "Hey!"

"I see… What kind of questions?" Jaina asked.

"Look, we found your pin." Magpie said. "We know those guys you hired aren't your typical hired muscle. So, either you work for some mob boss or you bought them off a mob boss."

"Hmm, you girls aren't as stupid as you look." Jaina smirked. "Tell you what, we don't have to be enemies. Get up and follow me, I'm going to take you to see somebody." She turned around and gestured for them to follow. "This way, c'mon…"

The girls began to stand up and White Rabbit gestured for them to follow her strange double. As they began leaving, Jaina glanced over at her injured and unconscious bodyguards. "Oh yeah, you're all fired by the way."

Several minutes later, the girls followed Jaina and White Rabbit down to the parking garage across the street where they got in a black SUV owned by Jaina. White Rabbit sat behind the wheel while Jaina got in the passenger seat and the girls managed to squeeze themselves in the back together.

"So, um, where are we going?" Harley asked. "If you're trying to kill us just know that we got you outnumbered."

"Please, I'm not stupid." Jaina shook her head. "I think you would be a very valuable addition to our team."

"I dunno… I don't really do team stuff." Harley shook her head. "Y'see, ever since me 'n Mistah J split off, I ain't a fan of being a subordinate."

"Don't worry, my boss treats his employees well. As long as they do good." Jaina said.

The rest of the car ride remained silent until they girls found themselves outside the Iceberg Lounge.

"Wait a minute, do you work for the Penguin?" Magpie asked.

"Oh, you'll see." Jaina replied.

White Rabbit stopped the car around the back and unlocked the doors. "I'll be waiting for you all back here. Good luck inside."

"Thank you." Jaina kissed her albino clone on the cheek and exited the car and motioned for Harley and the gang to follow her.

The girls exited the car and followed Jaina through the club's backdoor. From there, Jaina led them up several flights of stairs until they reached a set of double doors. "Alright girls, this is the place. Here is where my bosses are."

"Seriously, if this is a death trap, I'm gonna fucking kill you." Ivy said. "You don't have your freaky showgirl clone with you so you're pretty much helpless."

"Have a little faith, okay?" Jaina smirked as she opened the door. She turned to address whoever was in the room as she entered. "Sorry to intrude boys, but I've got some prospective new members of our fine organization."

As they entered the round room, they realized exactly who was in the office. There were three desks set up and in each desk sat a powerful person within Gotham's underworld. First was the one they'd expected to see, Oswald Cobblepot, the Penguin. He owned the Iceberg Lounge and despite his bizarre fixation of birds was likely the sanest person in the room.

The next person of note was Harvey Dent, alias Two-Face. Former Gotham City district attorney, Mr. Dent had gone insane after troubles with work came to a head when a man he was prosecuting scarred him with acid in court. Now, Dent's split personality of Two-Face was one of the most feared faces of Gotham's criminal underworld.

The last man in the lineup was less intimidating than the rest. He was Maximillian "Maxie" Zeus, a man labouring under the delusion that he was in fact that Greek God he shares his name with. Despite the delusions of grandeur, Zeus still had an impressive physique to back up his words and amassed a small empire in Gotham's seedy underbelly.

"Speak to us, mortal. Who have you brought?" Maxie asked.

"Oh hey, I recognize these girls." Two-Face remarked. "I thought you all skipped town a while back?"

"Yeah, we did." Harley said. "But hey, we're back now."

"And we're pissed that our apartment building was taken over while we were away." Ivy added.

"Oh, yes. I'm afraid that's my fault." Penguin said. "We've helped Ms. Hudson here take over a sizable portion of Gotham City's real estate."

"Well, is there any way for me to get my old apartment back?" Ivy asked.

"We're always looking for new recruits." Two-Face said. "Perhaps we could set you up with a new place if you worked for us."

"I dunno… I kinda have reservations about that." Harley said.

"Listen, I know you just got back to town, but right now Gotham is in the middle of a bit of a gang war." Two-Face said.

"A three way war." Jaina added.

"Mmm, I love a good threeway." Selina chuckled.

"Not the time for jokes Ms. Kyle. This is a serious matter." Penguin said. "Me, Harv and Maxie are just one side of this war. There are two other powerful gangs in the street. One control by Black Mask and a few other associates of his and one controlled by the new Ventriloquist, the woman."

"Oh yeah, we had a few run-ins with her." Magpie remarked.

"Even if you aren't with us, you're still part of this war. We all won't stop until one of us is on top." Penguin went on. "Now ladies, do you understand the situation?"

"More or less." Harley nodded.

"So mortals, will you join us in Olympus or parish in the depths of Hades?" Maxie spoke up again.

"Um… Can you give us a second to talk amongst ourselves?" Harley asked.

"Zeus allows it." Maxie nodded.

"Uh, thanks." Harley looked back to her friends. "Girls…" The four girls huddled up together like they were a bunch of football players. "So, um, what do you think we should do?"

"I've never been one for working with an organization. Catwoman is solo, you know." Selina said.

"Yes, it's not my style either." Ivy nodded. "I don't like being ordered around. Especially by meatheaded men like that Zeus idiot."

"Yeah, I ain't really interested in this whole gang war thing they're going on about." Harley nodded.

"I… I'm not sure…" Magpie muttered. "But if you girls don't want to join, then I'm with you."

The girls stopped huddling and looked back to the three mob bosses. Harley stepped forward to address them. "Yeah, we're not joining you. Us girls, we're doing our own thing and we're not getting involved in your gang war shit. So, can we leave now?"

"You've made your decision… Not sure if it was the right one but you made it." Two-Face remarked. "Ms. Hudson, show them the door."

Jaina nodded and opened the door. "This way please." With that she began escorting the girls out of the office and down the stairs. "Oh, just so you know we won't be giving you a ride home."

"Yeah, we're fine with that. Beats being part of your group." Ivy said.

"To quote Groucho Marx: I don't wanna be part of a club that'd have me as a member." Harley nodded.

"You girls are fools." Jaina shook her head. "Trust me, you're going to regret this decision."

*******

Somewhere, in one of Gotham City's more wealthy neighborhoods, there was a house that belonged to a very certain woman. Her name was Peyton Riley and she sort of stumbled her way into being in charge of two powerful groups of Gotham's criminal underworld.

She was born as the daughter to Sean Riley, head of Gotham's Irish Mob. But thanks to one unfortunate night, Peyton lost her right eye and her father. However, that same night she came into possession of a particular doll known as Scarface which more or less let her force her way into control of the Ventriloquist's crime family.

Tonight, Ms. Riley was having a quiet dinner at home. She'd placed Mr. Scarface in a chair across from her and was having a conversation with him as she ate the pasta she'd made herself for dinner.

"So Scarface, how are you tonight?" Peyton took a bite of her pasta. Scarface said nothing but Peyton heard him all the same. "Oh, you… You're such a flirt."

Peyton continued eating for a little while until she heard some footsteps coming towards her. Looking to her right she saw the door to her basement open up and emerging from it was a man she recognized.

He wore a dusty trenchcoat and heavy black boots. His face was completely obscured by bandages. His name was Hush, a figure in Gotham's underworld that held a considerable amount of power. Currently he'd gotten himself a position as Ms. Riley's top lieutenant.

"Peyton, I hope I'm not interrupting." Hush said.

"Scarface and I were just having dinner." Peyton glanced over to Hush. "This had better be important."

"I believe it is." Hush nodded as he went up to the table. "I've found out that several particular people have returned to the city. People who may be valuable to our group."

"Stop being vague. I know it's your thing but I need details here, alright?" Peyton said.

Hush nodded before continuing. "Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Catwoman. The three of them are back in Gotham. In the middle of this conflict we're having, they could be valuable assets."

"Hmm… Thank you Tommy. We'll have to discuss this more in private." Peyton smiled at him. "We'll want to get them on our side before someone like Two-Face or Black Mask gets their hands on them."

"I'll tell the others about this. I'll be in your office after you finish eating." Hush nodded and left Peyton on her own with Scarface.

Once he left, Peyton glanced at Scarface and stared at him for a few moments. "Him? Oh, don't worry Pumpkin. He's just a friend. You're the only man for me…"


	3. Business Opportunities

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **This Chapter's Featured Characters:**  
>  **Black Mask:** Roman Sionis aka Black Mask, a Gotham City crime lord with a skull like mask. Briefly featured in my first Harley Quinn fanfic but don't worry, nothing important happened with him there.
> 
> **Firefly:** Garfield Lynns aka Firefly, a former Hollywood special effects expert turned serial arsonist/muscle for hire.
> 
> **Joker:** The Joker, a mysterious clownlike figure who enjoys spreading chaos and disordered. Harley's ex-boyfriend.

In Gotham's industrial district there were many old buildings dating back to the city's founding. Some operational, some not so much. One of these abandoned buildings was the old Sionis steel mill. It had closed down after Roman Sionis had a severe mental breakdown and the company was transferred to someone else.

But currently, this old building served as the base of operations to Roman and several of his associates. These days Roman went by the name Black Mask and was a feared figure in Gotham's criminal world on account of him having a reputation for torturing those who displeased him rather brutally.

On this particular day, Black Mask was in the decrepit remains of his old office rifling through a drawer. That morning he'd received a tape cassette in the mail from a business partner of his. Said partner was currently incarcerated but may as well have not been in prison at all since he managed to smuggle information in and out of Arkham Asylum so easily. With Arkham's security being what it was, staying in prison was a choice for him.

He took the tape player out from his desk and put it down on the table. "Alright Warren, let's see what you've got to say today…" He put the cassette inside the player and pressed play on it.

After a short pause the voice of one Warren White began to speak. _"Hello Roman, hope this reaches you faster than the last one. I've picked up some chatter here in the Asylum that might concern you. Y'know that crazy cannibal motherfucker? The weird looking one with the pink hair? What was his name… Oh yeah, Flamingo. See, Flamingo, I hear he's working for Ventriloquist and her pals. I dunno if they're paying him or they're just keeping him locked in a basement or what. Anyway, he's with them now and that's bad news because he eats faces off. Not a problem for me since I'm missing part of mine already. Alright, Great White Shark signing off."_

The tape recording stopped and Black Mask took out the tape. He opened up a drawer and placed the tape into a drawer filled with other numbered tapes. "Flamingo, eh… I'll have to look into that one."

Before Black Mask had much of a chance to think about the Great White Shark's message more, the door to his office opened up and in stepped another business partner of his. He was one of the, if not the most, feared figures in Gotham. He was the Joker. Today he was dressed in a large purple coat and matching hat and seemed to have applied some extra red lipstick today.

"Masky! How are you today?" Joker smirked at Black Mask.

"Fine enough." Black Mask muttered. "What do you want?"

"Oh come on, can't a guy visit his business partner?" Joker pulled up a chair and sat at the desk across from Roman.

"You always have an agenda, Joker." Black Mask calmly replied. "Frankly, I only work with you because you scare me and because you're a lot more competent than you look. Just tell me what you want."

"Alright, fine, guilty as charged." Joker laughed a little. "I've had my ear to the ground so to speak and I've heard that a particular someone who I loathe is back in town. A little someone called Harley Quinn."

"Jesus…" Black Mask sighed and rested his elbows on the table. "Look, Joker, I don't care what kind of lover's quarrel is going on between you two. I'm staying out of it."

"Oh c'mon Masky, I just need a teensy weensy favour here. Just get one of your hitmen to whack her for me. I'm tired of having her around. Especially after how she humiliated me last time she was here." Joker said.

"Yeah, no dice here pal." Black Mask shook his head. "Now get out of my office unless you have something actually important to talk about."

"Alright, fine. Ta-ta for now." Joker stood up and exited the old office, making sure to close the door behind him. Once he left the office he walked down the hall, looking over his shoulder several times to make sure he was out of earshot. Once he was certain, he took a cell phone and dialed in a number. After a short wait he heard someone pick up on the other side. "Mr. Lynns! Joker here, good news. Black Mask has authorized a hit on someone. Let me tell you all the details…"

*******

On Gotham's east end, Harley Quinn was still adjusting to life back in the big city. It was nine in the morning and she'd woken up about ten minutes ago, sleeping past the other three women at Selina's apartment. Currently, she was standing outside the bathroom door and waiting for her turn to go in.

"C'mon Maggie, lemme in." Harley let out an annoyed whine. "I really have to pee and wanna take a shower."

"Okay, okay, I just finished showering and I need to find a towel in here…" Magpie muttered from inside. "Fuck, where are the towels?"

"I saw some in the closet earlier. You can come out and grab one." Harley said.

"But I'm naked…"

"So? I've seen you naked before."

"Alright, alright, fine…"

The door opened up and on the other side was Magpie, dripping wet and completely naked. She looked rather shy and had her arms folded over her chest to hide her breasts. "God, this is so humiliating."

"Aww relax Maggie, I think you look cute." Harley giggled and smiled at Magpie.

"Whatever, you just use the bathroom. I'm gonna get a towel…" Magpie shuffled out of the bathroom and went to go find a towel to clothe herself with.

"Don't look so embarrassed Maggie, it's just us girls here." Harley giggled some more as she entered the bathroom. After relieving herself and washing off in the shower, Harley realized she too had no towels but didn't care about it as much as Magpie.

She left the bathroom after her shower and wandered to a closer where she got a towel to dry herself off. While she dried off, she was approached by Ivy.

"Hey Harls, hope you're having a nice morning." Ivy said. "Figured since we're back in town we could hang out a bit today, catch up on some old sights. Know what I mean?"

"Oh yeah, that sounds nice." Harley smiled. "I like the way you think." She giggled and gave Ivy a quick peck on the cheek. "Say, is there breakfast here? I'm really hungry right now."

"Selina decided to be nice and make some pancakes this morning. Want some?" Ivy said.

"You know it!" Harley cheered as she wrapped the towel around herself. From there she went to the dining room and helped herself to some breakfast. Magpie and Selina were already there with Magpie reading a book and Selina browsing the internet on her smartphone. "Mornin' girls!"

"Ah, glad to see you Harley." Selina smiled. "Help yourself to some pancakes."

"Will do!" Harley cheered and got some pancakes on her plate.

Ivy soon entered the dining room and sat down with her. "You know, I'm not optimistic very often. But I think today is going to be a good day."

"Yeah! Me too!" Harley cheered.

"You know, I've got a plan to do some sightseeing with Harley today." Ivy remarked. "Would you girls like to tag along?"

"No thanks, I already made some plans with Magpie." Selina said. "We need to get some more groceries for the house."

"Well, you two have fun with that." Harley nodded. "I know Red and I are gonna have fun for sure!"

About an hour later, Harley had finished breakfast and gotten herself properly dressed. Magpie and Selina had already left the house to do some of the aforementioned shopping but Harley and Ivy were still at the apartment.

However, Harley had just finished dressing and was ready to go out. She exited Selina's bedroom after applying a little bit of makeup and approached Ivy.

"Alrighty Red, I'm ready for our date out on the town!" Harley cheered.

"Wonderful darling…" Ivy smiled and stood up, taking Harley by the hand.

The two of them soon left the apartment, making sure to use the spare key to lock up behind them. As they left the apartment building together, Harley decided to make some small talk with her girlfriend.

"So Pam, where do ya feel like goin' today?" Harley asked.

"I was thinking we could hang out in the park. It's a beautiful day and I just want to enjoy some nature." Ivy said. "Plus since it's the middle of the day, we don't have to worry about Batman or his friends spoiling our fun."

"Ooh yay, I'd love to have a nice normal day out with you." Harley held Ivy by the hand and nuzzled herself a bit closer to her girlfriend.

"I'm sure we'll have lots of fun, don't you worry." Ivy smiled as she walked down the street. "And, maybe, if we get home before Selina and Maggie… We could have some special private time together."

"Hehe! You're so naughty, Red!" Harley laughed. "I love it!"

While the girlfriends happily chatted and walked together, they were completely unaware that they were being observed. Perched on a tall building across from them was a man by the name of Garfield Lynns. But he preferred to be called by another name; Firefly.

He only had one thing he wanted out of life, to watch the world burn. And not in a metaphorical way either. He enjoyed setting things on fire and watching them burn. However, he wasn't just an arsonist or passion. Lynns still needed money so he hired himself out as a freelance assassin. Currently, he was under the employ of Black Mask's crime syndicate.

Earlier that morning he'd received a call from one of Black Mask's associates asking him to kill Harley Quinn. And so here he found himself, suited up on top of a building lying in wait for the perfect time to strike.

He picked up a walkie-talkie off his belt and held it up to him. "Joker, I've found her."

_"Well, what are you waiting for? Do your thing! Burn her!"_ Joker's voice crackled to life from the other side.

_"Give me a moment, I need to plan this out. I wanna find a spot with lots of stuff to burn."_ Firefly replied. He stayed quiet for a moment before continuing. _"Say… Why does Black Mask want her dead exactly?"_

_"Oh, I don't know. Maybe he just finds her annoying? I know I do."_ Joker remarked.

"Right… Are you sure this is all legit? I don't think I've heard the boss mention Harley before."

_"Listen bug boy, you're not paid to ask questions. You're paid to set things on fire. Now get to it!"_

"Alright, alright… I'll update you when I find a good place to ambush her." Firefly sighed and put away the walkie talkie. "Fuckin' clown… Can't wait to set this bitch on fire. Just need to be patient..."

*******

In the same neighborhood, several blocks away, there was a fairly conventional supermarket. Ordinary Gotham citizens went there every day for their eggs, bread and milk. But on this particular day it was being shopped at by two women who the police would likely arrest if given the chance; Selina Kyle and Margaret Pye.

The two women were dressed in casual clothes and attempting to not look suspicious. Selina was clothed in shorts and tank top while Magpie had a t-shirt and sweatpants on. Selina confidently walked through the aisles, occasionally stopping to pick out items she needed while Magpie awkwardly stuck close by her and pushed around the cart.

"Alright Maggie, I think that's everything." Selina remarked. "Ready to check out?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure thing." Magpie nodded. She gripped the handle of the cart tighter as she made her way to the exit, looking around a few times.

"Everything alright? You look a little tense." Selina said as they made it to the checkout.

"I guess I'm just worried someone will recognize us." Magpie whispered as she began loading items onto the conveyor belt.

"Oh, don't worry. We're just two regular women going shopping." Selina leaned in and kissed Magpie on the cheek before helping her put more items on the belt.

After placing all the items down Selina went to address the cashier, a young man of about twenty. "Hello there, me and my friend here will be paying with debit today, is that alright?"

The cashier stared at the two women for a moment as he checked out their items before nodding. "Uh, yeah."

"We brought our own bags by the way." Magpie added as she held up a canvas bag and began to put away the items he rang up.

The cashier silently nodded while blankly staring at Selina. Seeing this, Selina couldn't help but smirk. "You're staring at my tits, aren't you?"

"Huh? N- No." the cashier replied.

"Relax tough guy, I get that reaction a lot." Selina chuckled. "Feel free to stare, okay. You can get all the cleavage you like. But my bare tits are reserved for very special people…"

"Hey, Selina, can you pay for the food and stop flirting with the grocery boy?" Magpie sighed.

"Fine…" Selina sighed. With that she paid for their groceries and gave the cashier a flirtatious wink. From there Magpie and Selina began the walk home together, making small talk as they went.

"Selina… I've got a question." Magpie said.

"Yeah, what is it?" Selina replied.

"Well… Not to sound rude or anything, but do you think about sex all the time?" Magpie asked.

Selina thought for a moment before coming up with a reply. "Yeah, kinda. Do you?"

"Well… Maybe…" Magpie mumbled.

"If you do it's nothing to be ashamed of." Selina said. "Sex feels good. Orgasms feel good."

"I guess. I still use that vibrator you bought me. I just don't like talking about this kind of thing." Magpie shrugged.

Before their discussion of sex could continue any further, they were distracted when a limousine pulled up to the curb and one of the windows rolled down and from inside a gruff man's voice called out. "Hey, ladies! Hop in!"

"What the…" Selina stared into the car and saw the Scarface puppet staring right out at her. "Oh, hey there dummy."

"Hey! I ditched the dummy." Scarface said. "Now I got a beautiful lady as my faithful sidekick"

"That's right." Peyton Riley stuck her head out the window as well. Magpie couldn't help but wince when she saw the scar tissue around her eye. "Would you two mind getting in with us? We can give you a lift back to your apartment."

"Gee, I dunno. This kinda goes against everything my mom taught me about stranger danger." Selina smirked.

"Look, if we wanted to kill ya we'd have done it. We merely have a business proposition to discuss." Scarface said.

"Alright, fine. But no funny business." Selina said.

"We promise." Peyton nodded and opened up the door.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Magpie whispered to Selina.

"Oh, not at all. But I think we can take them if it comes to that." Selina whispered back.

The two of them entered the limo together, taking a seat across from Peyton and Scarface. However once they were both seated, they realized that there was another person in the car with her. Specifically the bandaged visage of Hush seated beside Peyton.

"Son of a bitch…" Selina muttered. "You didn't tell me this asshole was in here with you."

"Well, nice to see you too." Hush smirked behind his bandages. "Let's talk business now, shall we?"

*******

Across town, Harley and Ivy had just arrived at the park together. They held hands as they walked around, admiring the sights around them. It seemed like a perfectly normal day. Kids were playing, people were feeding the pigeons and the sun was shining. The perfect type of day.

"I see why ya like nature so much, Pammy." Harley smiled. "It's real nice out here."

"The world needs more nature." Ivy nodded.

Harley gently squeezed Ivy's hand as the two of them made it over to a pond. The two of them sat at a bench together as they watched some ducks swimming around in the pond.

"This is real nice… We need to have more quiet time together." Harley leaned herself against Ivy and gave her a kiss.

"Yeah, I love spending time with you." Ivy nodded and kissed Harley again. "Being around you always makes me happy."

Harley giggled and hugged Ivy close, kissing at her some more. "I could do this forever."

"Let's not get too romantic in public, we wouldn't want to get in trouble." Ivy whispered to Harley.

"Oh relax, it ain't like I'm eating you out. It's just a little kiss." Halrey giggled.

"Fair enough…" Ivy smiled and kissed Harley back.

"We'll have plenty of time to get really naughty when we're back home." Harley held onto Ivy and kept kissing at her.

Before the two of them could continue their romantic interactions they became distracted by something. It was a sound in the distance that they couldn't quite make out at first until it got closer. It became clear that the sound was maniacal laughter of some kind.

Looking over her shoulder she saw Firefly gliding through the air over the park and right towards them. "Is that Firefly? What the hell is he doin' here?"

"Quinn! You clown bitch, I'm gonna fuckin' kill you!" Firefly held onto his flamethrower and had it pointed at Harley and Ivy.

"Never mind, question answered!" Harley quickly stood up and jumped out of the way as Firefly shot off his flamethrower.

"Burn! Burn!" Firefly cackled as he watched his flames engulf the bench and the grass below it. "Fuckin' burn!"

Ivy stared in horror as she watched the grass burning. "No… No, no, no!"

"It's okay Red, I survived!" Harley crawled over to her.

"Oh thank god you're okay…" Ivy sighed in relief as she grabbed Harley by the wrist. "But that bastard, he's destroying all these plants! He'll pay for this."

"I think he's also tryin' to kill us." Harley added.

"We're gonna take him down, mark my words…" Ivy gritted her teeth together in anger.

Firefly pressed a button on his suit which boosted him further into the air. He used this boost to swoop back around. He shot off another jet of flame which set fire to a tree. This made Ivy cry out in pain.

"Stop it! You're hurting them!" Ivy yelled.

"They're so beautiful when they burn!" Firefly laughed. He fired the flamethrower again and narrowly missed Harley when she jumped out of the way, pulling Ivy with her.

"That's it! He's going down!" Ivy clenched her fists in anger.

"Uh, Ives, don't go overboard okay…" Harley took a few steps back from her.

Ivy scowled as she looked up at Firefly and raised her hands up at him. A pair of large roots burst through the ground and shot straight ahead at Firefly. Despite this, Firefly just laughed and flew ahead. This ended up being a mistake when the roots slammed straight into him and launched him into the pond, scaring off the ducks.

"Woo! Great job Red!" Harley cheered. "Now c'mon, let's scram."

"Oh no, I'm not done yet…" Ivy approached the water and waited for Firefly to resurface. "I have some questions for this man."

"Alright, but hurry 'em up." Harley looked over her shoulder. "I don't want us to get in trouble again."

"Oh, it'll be fine." Ivy said. "Now help me fish him out, we're taking him somewhere safe to interrogate."

*******

Across the city, Magpie and Catwoman were still in the back of the Ventriloquist's car and they'd been patiently listening to her, Hush and Scarface explain things. According to the Ventriloquist she'd been heading a rather powerful group in Gotham's underworld and she was looking for Magpie, Catwoman and their friends to join her.

"So ladies, how do youse two feel 'bout joinin' our little group?" Scarface asked.

"We have a lot of things that can help out you and your friends." Hush added. "It would be a mutually beneficial relationship."

"We've got all the connections you need." Peyton went on. "Money, sex, drugs, power. It's all yours. You girls don't have to just do small scale robberies or burlaries, you could have the whole world."

"Yes, well… We don't want the world." Selina said. "See darling, I'm perfectly comfortable with my life. I like my average apartment, I like my cats, I like my friends, I like small scale crime and I like my girlfriend." She reached over and held Magpie's hand.

"I'm your girlfriend?" Magpie quietly mumbled.

"Of course you are…" Selina held onto Magpie's hand and gave her a kiss.

Magpie blushed and kissed Selina back. "Thanks…"

"Hey, lesbos, we're talkin' here." Scarface said. "Look, are you two seriously not gonna work for us? We'll give ya everything ya ever wanted."

"The answer is still no." Selina said.

"Yeah, Two-Face and his friends already tried recruiting us." Magpie added. "And we said no."

"So you get the same response." Selina nodded. "Especially because Hush is involved. And he's a major league asshole."

"Is this because I keep trying to kill your crazy Bat-Boyfriend?" Hush sighed.

"Partially." Selina admitted. "But me and the big bad Bat are taking a break, hence my girlfriend. Mostly I just don't like you as a person."

"So, it seems you've made your decision." Peyton sighed. She leaned forward and used her free hand to tap on the glass behind her. "Stop the car please, our guests are leaving."

"Wait, you said you'd take us home." Magpie said.

"Yes, but that was before you refused our offer." Peyton said. "Now, get out." The car came to a stop and she opened up the door.

"Hold on, we live pretty close." Magpie spoke up. "Can't you just-"

"The lady said out!" Scarface snapped.

Not wanting to argue with the deranged Ventriloquist and her puppet, Magpie and Selina quickly exited the limo as it sped off away from them.

"Wow… That lady is a bitch." Magpie remarked.

"Yeah, I know. That's why I'm very selective about who I work with." Selina nodded. "Now, let's go home."

Magpie and Selina walked back home together in relative silence, occasionally making small talk or semi-flirty banter. When they reached Selina's apartment, she unlocked the door and entered only to be greeted by a shocking sight.

Harley and Ivy were in the living room with Firefly tied to a chair by Ivy's fines. Selina and Magpie stared at them for a few moments trying to make sense of the situation.

"Red, can ya please calm down, I think you're gonna hurt him." Harley pleaded, not noticing the other two women entering the apartment.

"Good. He deserves it after what he did." Ivy said, tightening the vines around him.

"I think he's unconscious…" Harley said.

Selina finally decided to make herself known to them. "Girls… What the fuck is this?"

"Oh…" Harley turned around to look at the two of them. "Hey there kitty cat! We kinda got into some trouble."

"We can see that…" Magpie nervously nodded.

"Care to explain?" Selina asked as she approached them calmly.

"Well, basically, this douchebag tried to kill me." Harley explained, putting a hand on Firefly's shoulder and shaking him.

"He also set fire to part of a park." Ivy added. "Which is why I want to kill him."

"But I'm trying to be nice. Which is sayin' a lot cause he tried to set me on fire." Harley said.

Magpie got closer to Firefly and poked him a little. "Is he gonna be alright?" Her question was answered when Firefly lurched to life and looked around.

"What the hell… Jesus Christ, did you crazy bitches kidnap me?" Firefly looked around wildly.

"You be quiet!" Ivy tightened the vines around him.

"Gah! What the hell do you want…" Firefly gasped.

"We just got a simple question for ya." Harley said. "Why the hell did ya try to kill me?"

"I was being paid to do it…" Firefly mumbled.

"Paid by who?"

"Black Mask, I think… Got a call about him wanting me to kill you."

"Well you tell Black Mask that he can go fuck himself." Harley scowled at Firefly and punched him in the face, knocking him over in the chair. He bumped his head on the ground and was knocked unconscious.

After a long pause, Magpie spoke up. "So… What do we do now?"

"I say we kill him." Ivy said.

"Always with the murder, jeez." Selina groaned. "Let's just get rid of him."

"But he's seen the apartment." Magpie said.

"Only the inside. He was unconscious when we dragged him up here." Harley replied.

"Makes our job easy then. I'll just drop him in a dumpster and he can go tell Black Mask to go fuck himself like Harley wanted." Selina said.

"Sounds like a plan." Harley nodded. In a fit of immaturity, she blew a raspberry at Firefly's unconscious body. "Well, sorry about draggin' him in here. Hopefully we ain't gonna have these problems again."

"Let's hope not…" Ivy nodded.

*******

Far away from the drama unfolding around at Harley's apartment, the Joker was at his current hideout. He'd set up shop at the crumbling skeleton of a carnival. The city had been meaning to demolish the place for years but thanks to Joker's constant occupation of the place workers and police kept getting chased off periodically.

At the moment, Joker was seated on his couch and watching the news channels. In his mind, Harley was already did and he was just waiting for the happy news to be reported.

"C'mon… Any moment now…" Joker whispered to himself.

All the lights in the room were off with only the dim light of the television illuminating things. However, Joker was soon broken out of his TV trance by the sound of a ringing phone.

"Oh dammit, now what?" Joker sighed and reached across the couch to a side table where he picked up the phone. Looking at the caller ID he saw it was Black Mask on the other line. Smirking to himself, he's answered. "You've reached the Clown Prince of Crime, how may I help you?"

_"Joker… I'm looking at the news right now and it says that Firefly, you know, my assassin, was just seen attempting to kill Harley Quinn."_ Black Mask's voice said from the other line. _"Any idea why that is?"_

"Hold on? That's on the news? Which channel? Did she die?" Joker picked up his remote and began flipping through the channels.

_"It's an article on the internet, dumbass. Get a wi-fi router in that stupid hideout of yours. Second, no, she's alive. Now will your answer my question?"_

"What was the question?"

_"Why did my assassin try to carry out an unauthorized hit?"_

"I haven't got an idea. Maybe you sent out the wrong email or some wires got crossed? Why are you calling me?"

_"Call it a hunch."_

"Uh huh… Is there anything else you want from me, Masky?"

_"No. Just try not to push my buttons or else this partnership is off."_

With that Black Mask hung up on the other line. Joker just chuckled to himself and turned off the television. "Oh well, Plan A almost never works. But with Harley back things just got a lot more interesting…"


	4. Building  a Team

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **This Chapter's Featured Characters:**
> 
> **Killer Moth:** Drury Walker aka Killer Moth is a second rate criminal with a moth theme. Sometimes he's depicted as mutating into a moth person but for the purposes of this he's just a regular guy with a cocoon gun.
> 
> **Kite-Man:** Charles Brown aka Kite-Man is a low level criminal in Gotham City who uses a kite shaped hangglider and other gimmicked kite devices to commit crimes. He plays a fairly significant role in the Harley Quinn cartoon however I want to attempt to do something different.
> 
> **Anarky:** Lonnie Machin aka Anarky is a young vigilante who is at odds with Batman most of the time due to his occasionally violent brand of anarchist vigilante justice.
> 
> **Batgirl:** Multiple characters have held the title of Batgirl over the years, however in this story Batgirl is Stephanie Brown; daughter of the supervillain Cluemaster.
> 
> **Robin:** Just like Batgirl, there have been several Robins. In this case, Robin will be Damian Wayne; Batman's biological son.

The previous few days in the life of Harley Quinn had been tumultuous to say the least. First she'd found out that her old apartment was no longer under Ivy's ownership. Then it became apparent that there was some sort of gang war going on in Gotham. And most recently it seemed that two of these factions wanted to recruit her while at least one wanted to kill her.

At this point all Harley really wanted was to be left alone so she could do her own criminal stuff without having to deal with all these other crazy criminals who wanted her for their own agenda.

On this particular morning, Harley was in the shower trying to forget all her troubles. So far it seemed to be working. As the hot water washed over her it felt like all her problems were melting away.

But as she soaped herself up, her mind wandered to various places. She thought about movies she'd seen, her relationship with Ivy, what she'd eat for dinner that night and several other things. Eventually her mind went back to the initial problem of three different crime factions in Gotham who all seemed at least some degree of interested in her. But it was right then that something clicked in her mind and a solution came to her.

"That's it! I got an idea!" Harley cheered and excitedly turned off the water. She giggled excitedly and stepped out of the shower and worked fast to dry herself off and throw a bathrobe over herself.

She exited the bathroom and hurried to the living room where she saw Ivy, Magpie and Selina on the couch and watching an old wild west movie on TV.

"Hey girls!" Harley cheered. "Boy have I got some great news!"

"Oh, hey Harley." Selina looked over her shoulder at Harley. "You're dripping all over the floor."

"And your robe is open." Ivy added, smirking a bit as she saw her girlfriend's breasts and vulva on display. "Not that I mind."

"Heh, oopsie!" Harley giggled and closed up her robe. "Um, anyway, I just got a great idea."

"Was it so important that you had to get out of the shower?" Magpie asked.

"Oh yeah, totally." Harley nodded. "I figured out how we'll get those no good crime guys off our backs."

"Right, those assholes." Ivy said. "What's your plan for them?"

Harley giggled and sat down on the chair across from the girls. "It's simple!" She kicked her legs up into the air in excitement. "We just build our own team of Gotham supervillains who don't wanna get involved in this stupid gang thing and we all take 'em down together."

"So you want us to make a gang to destroy some gangs?" Magpie asked.

"Well when ya put it like that, it sounds counterintuitive." Harley admitted. "But I still say we go with it. Because first off, it sounds fun. And second off, I ain't a fan of those mob guys. So I just wanna get them to stop bothering us. So, you girls with me?"

"Sure, why not." Selina nodded. "I agree, I don't like those guys either. But the four of us aren't enough to take these guys down on our own."

"Yeah, we'd definitely need a team like you're suggesting." Magpie nodded.

"I think I know a few places we can recruit from." Selina said.

"So you're all in?" Harley asked.

"We sure are, Harls. We'll look into this later." Ivy nodded. "Oh, also, we can see your privates again."

Harley giggled and crossed her legs quickly. "Uh, thanks! Anyhow, I'm excited to get this new idea underway."

*******

Later that night, Harley had gotten herself properly dressed and her and the girls had gone off to go find some of those recruits Harley wanted. After debating amongst themselves for a little bit, they decided to scout around a local tough guy bar called the Stacked Deck, known for being a hangout for a lot of Gotham's lesser known criminals.

The four girls had decided to dress up decked out in their full on supervillain outfits and head down there in the evening to see if they could meet anyone who'd be interested in joining up with them.

"So, um, what's the plan now that we're here?" Magpie whispered to the other girls.

"There's a lot of weirdo losers here, I'm sure they'd be willing to help if we paid them enough." Selina explained. "How about we split off? I'll go with Harley. And Magpie, you can go with Ivy."

"Works for me." Harley nodded.

"Sure, let's go." Ivy said, looking over and nodding at Magpie. "C'mon." With that her and Magpie wandered off into the bar together.

Once they were gone, Harley chuckled to herself and gave Selina a hug. "C'mon Kitty, let's go find some people who wanna help us!"

"You've got it, I'm sure we'll find some people who are interested." Selina said as she entered the Stacked Deck with Harley walking alongside her. "Just keep in mind we're not exactly gonna find A-list talent here. We'll have to settle for some second stringers."

"That's fine with me. Last time I did this recruitment thing it wasn't like Magpie was my first choice." Harley said.

The two of them entered the bar together and looked around for anyone who seemed to stand out. The bar was packed at around this time and had a lot of very tough but comparatively average looking thugs around the bar. Most of those folks were probably employed already. Harley even saw some of them wearing pins matching the one Magpie had stolen. So they were definitely not on the table for recruitment.

After some looking around they eventually found a suitable candidate. Sitting at the bar was a man in a garish purple spandex suit with orange and yellow leggings and a green mask over his face. After a bit of staring, Harley recognized the man as the often humiliated Killer Moth.

He used to be taken fairly seriously as a figure in the criminal underworld until he was taken down by a very inexperienced Batgirl in one of her first outings as a hero. This misfortune eventually led to him being considered nothing but a joke in the criminal community which was why he appeared to be more than a little drunk as Harley and Selina approached him.

"Well hey there, you must be the Killer Moth." Harley smiled. "How's it goin?"

"I don't wanna talk…" Killer Moth mumbled.

"Aww, someone in a bad mood?" Harley asked.

"Yes… Why do you think I'm drinking." Killer Moth replied.

Selina chuckled and sat beside him. "Don't you want to know why two pretty ladies are talking to you?"

"A little, I guess." Killer Moth sighed. "Are you just trying to seduce me and steal my money? 'Cause I'm kinda broke right now."

"Aw relax, we ain't that desperate for cash either." Harley giggled, leaning in towards him. "But if you are that desperate… Well, we're lookin' for some new hires for our group."

"You don't work for Black Mask do you?" Killer Moth asked. "I already told him I'm not interested."

"Oh no, quite the opposite in fact." Selina smirked. "See, we're against Black Mask and those other big gangs. We just want to do our silly small scale crimes in peace. We just need more people to help us out with it. So, are you in?"

"I dunno…" Killer Moth sighed. "Tell you what, buy me another drink and I'll consider it.

"Fine with me." Harley said. "Trust me, you're gonna do great. Just, uh, try to stay sober, alright?"

"Uh huh, I'll try." Killer Moth said.

While Selina and Harley were hanging out at the bar with Killer Moth, Magpie and Poison Ivy were wandering around and trying to find anyone else who would be suitable to recruit. A few of the male patrons of the Stacked Deck got a bit too handsy for Ivy's liking but she was always very quick to slap any intruding hands away.

"I don't really see anyone suitable here…" Magpie said. "Maybe this is a bust."

"I agree with you, trying to get help from here is ill advised." Ivy sighed. "But for Harley's sake let's keep looking. If we get lucky maybe we'll find Ratcatcher or something."

"You really like Harley, huh?" Magpie remarked.

"Yeah I do. It really feels like me and her were meant to be." Ivy admitted.

"That's sweet." Magpie smiled. "I'm real happy for you two."

The two of them walked around some more until they saw someone sitting alone at a table that caught their eye. He was a man dressed in all green spandex with a helmet on his head and a yellow diamond shape on his chest.

"Hey, any idea who that is?" Ivy whispered.

"Not a clue." Magpie shook her head.

"Well, whoever he is, he's got C-list loser villain written all over him." Ivy smirked. "Let's go talk to him."

Both Ivy and Magpie walked over to the green clad man and sat around the table with him casually. To alleviate any awkwardness, Ivy spoke up quickly. "Hey there, what's up? Mind if we sit here?"

"Not at all, make yourself at home." the man said. "Name's Kite-Man by the way, just in case you haven't heard."

"Kite-Man?" Magpie repeated.

"Yep, the one and only." Kite-Man nodded. "Professional thief and hang gliding enthusiast."

"Right…" Ivy trailed off, trying to process the man. "Do you have any superpowers?"

"Nope, just my trusty kite glider and some gadgets." Kite-Man said with a proud smile on his face. "Say… Aren't you Poison Ivy?"

"Um, yes. That's me." Ivy nodded. "And this is my friend Magpie."

"Well, what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" Kite-Man asked.

"Recruitment, if you'd believe it." Ivy replied.

"Well, I certainly do." Kite-Man said. "Recruitment for what exactly?"

Ivy chuckled a little. "Well, it's a bit of a complicated matter. But if you've got the time I'd love to explain."

"Why not, I've got nothing better to do." Kite-Man nodded and took a sip from the beer in front of him. "I'll be honest, I came here to pick up chicks and not only did two very attractive women sit down in front of me, but they've got a business opportunity for me."

"I'm flattered." Ivy smirked. "But I'm also a lesbian."

"Well, good for you. At least we can both appreciate hot women." Kite-Man chuckled, indicating to Magpie.

"You think I'm hot?" Magpie asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, of course." Kite-Man nodded.

"Thanks…" Magpie found herself blushing a little. "But I'm already dating right now…"

Kite-Man shrugged and took a sip of his drink. "Well whoever you're dating is lucky."

Ivy cleared her throat to get his attention again. "So, about the recruitment?"

"Oh yeah, right. That whole thing." Kite-Man nodded. "What exactly do you want from me?"

"Well, we'd like you to join our group." Ivy said. "See, my girlfriend, who will also be your boss if you join us… She doesn't like the current state of affairs in Gotham. All these mob bosses running around and trying to take over. She'd much prefer things to be a bit more chaotic."

"Oh, I think I get it." Kite-Man nodded. "Personally, I've got no stake in this whole gang war thing going on. But if you girls want my help, why not. I'll help you out. As long as I get paid."

"It's a deal." Ivy said. "We'll give you a call when we need you." She stood up from the table and gestured for Magpie to follow her.

Magpie got up and went with Ivy. She held onto Ivy's hand, feeling slightly congested by the crowded bar. The two of them eventually found Selina and Harley in the bar.

"Well hey there girls." Selina smiled. "Find anyone worth recruiting?"

"Only one so far." Ivey said. "Calls himself Kite-Man. With a name like that I've got pretty low hopes for him."

"We found Killer Moth." Harley said. "It took a bit of convincin' but he wants to help us too."

"Well, it's not exactly a dream team but it's the best we've got." Ivy sighed. "So, now what should we do? Wanna keep looking?"

"I dunno… I kinda wanna go home." Harley admitted.

Before the discussion could continue much further, the entire atmosphere of the bar was interrupted. The skylight suddenly smashed open from outside and down through the hole above came two figures quite familiar to those in Gotham's criminal world.

First, was the newest person to hold the title of Batgirl. She had blonde hair and wore a dark purple suit. The second was the latest Robin, a younger boy who rumours said was Batman's son.

"Alright everyone, stay cool!" Batgirl cheered.

"We're only here for Anarky. We know he's in here." Robin said.

"We know you're all into some shady stuff, but right now we're just tracking down Anarky. He's been causing a lot of trouble to say the least." Batgirl added.

While Batgirl and Robin did their thing, Harley and the girls shrunk into the background.

"Psst, should we get out of here?" Magpie whispered.

"Oh yeah, definitely." Harley said. "I don't wanna get tossed back into Arkham."

The other thugs backed away from Batgirl and Robin, creating a circle around the two heroes. Batgirl glanced at Robin and smirked a bit. "Hey, I think they're scared of us."

"Enough of this…" a voice from the crowd spoke. It sounded partly robotic, like it was being filtered through some type of modulator. From the crowd stepped out the figure only known as Anarky. A rather tall figure in a red robe with a golden mask over his face.

"Ah, there you are." Batgirl said. "You're in a lot of trouble, Lonnie." She smirked and stepped towards him. "Are you gonna come quietly? We've got a lot of questions for you."

"No." Anakry quickly struck, taking a golden sceptre from his robe and hitting Batgirl with it. It sent an electrical shock through her and knocked her down.

Robin launched into action next, attacking Anarky. He moved quicker than Batgirl and managed to get a few hits on his opponent. However Anarky blocked most of the attacks and managed to shock Robin with the excepter. Batgirl attempted another attack but Anarky blocked her and hit her in the face, knocking her back.

Anarky took a grappling hook out from his robe and shot it up, hooking onto the roof of the Stacked Deck through the hole in the skylight and pulling himself out. Batgirl and Robin hurried out the same way chasing him, leaving the bar silent with shock.

"Whoa… We gotta get that guy on our team." Harley whispered.

*******

Only about half an hour later, Harley and the girls were inside Selina's apartment again after the incident at the bar to regroup and make a plan. The four of them had also dragged Kite-Man and Killer Moth along with them. Ever since she saw this Anarky person, she immediately wanted him on her side.

As soon as she arrived at Selina's apartment she'd locked herself in Selina's bedroom with a laptop to do research while the others awkwardly lounged around in the living room.

"So… Do you have any hobbies?" Selina asked the two men they'd just met.

Kite-Man and Killer Moth stayed silent, looking at each other and hoping the other one would respond. Eventually it was Killer Moth that spoke first. "I like to collect vintage soda bottles. They have some neat designs."

"That's cool, I collect some movie posters." Kite-Man remarked.

"Pretty neat." Magpie said. "You two seem pretty cool. I think you'll fit in just great."

"Thanks a lot. It's been a while since I've been part of a team." Kite-Man said.

Before the conversation could continue, the door to Selina's room burst open and out stepped Harley. "Okay bitches, I think I know what I'm doing!"

"Well, here's hoping." Ivy said. "What exactly were you doing in there?"

Harley giggled and sat down on Ivy's lap, giving her a kiss. "It's easy! We gotta find Anarky and get him to join us."

"Do you think he's even interested?" Magpie asked. "He looked kinda out of our league."

"Even if he is, we might as well try." Harley shrugged. "From what I can tell he's some kinda political extremist. He likes sabotaging corporate stuff and whatever."

"Hmmm, my kind of guy." Ivy smirked. "I need to get back into my corporate sabotage plans speaking of which…"

"Later, Ives." Harley said. "For now, we're gonna focus on finding Anarky and gettin' him on our side."

"Right… And how exactly do we do that?" Kite-Man asked.

"Great question Kite-Guy!" Harley cheered.

"Um, it's Kite-Man actually." Kite-Man spoke up.

"Whatever!" Harley excitedly jumped off of Ivy's lap and giggled. "Now, I've been lookin' at news reports about Anarky's past few crimes and thanks to my super duper detective skills I think I know where he'll be next!"

"Really?" Selina smirked. "Well, that's impressive."

"Uh… Are you sure?" Magpie asked, shifting around her posture in her chair a little. "No offence Harley, but I don't think you're known for your detective skills."

"None taken!" Harley cheered. "But don't you worry, I think I know what I'm doin'." She giggled excitedly for a moment. "Anyway, I'm fairly certain he's goin' to Wayne Tower. Accordin' to the news our boy Anarky has been on a mass vandalism and arson spree and in true supervillain form, he's been leavin' clues about where he'll go next."

"How reliable is this hunch of yours?" Killer Moth asked.

"It's kinda iffy…" Harley admitted. "So I figured, half of us could check out the actual site while the other half patrol the city. If something actually does happen at Wayne Tower, the rest of you can converge. How's that sound?"

"Pretty good plan actually." Ivy nodded. "Let's go for it."

"Yeah, this is gonna be great!" Harley cheered.

"Jesus… What have I gotten into?" Killer Moth sighed.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to the chaos." Magpie said. "I know I did."

*******

Yet another half hour later, Harley had made it to a building across the street from Wayne Tower. She'd taken Killer Moth and Kite-Man with her for scouting in the hopes that she'd be able to get to know them better. While she was doing reconcaissance atop the ledge with the boys, the other girls were off elsewhere in the city looking for Anarky.

"So boys, you excited for this?" Harley asked.

"Excited about what?" Killer Moth asked.

Harley shrugged and giggled. "I dunno but whatever we're about to do is gonna be exciting! I can feel it!"

Killer Moth stared at Harley for a moment. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"A lotta things probably." Harley shrugged once more. "I try not to think about it too much!"

While Killer Moth and Harley were having their talk, Kite Man had a pair of binoculars out and was observing the Wayne Building. He focused them in at the ground floor of the place and gradually began moving up the building. At one of the middle floors he saw something that caught his eye. In one of the windows was a silhouette of someone he couldn't quite make out.

"Hey, guys, I think I see him up there." Kite-Man said. "Twelfth floor."

"Are you sure?" Killer Moth asked.

"Reasonably sure." Kite-Man nodded.

"Good enough for me!" Harley cheered. With that she grabbed a communicator device off Killer Moth's belt and pressed a button on it. "Attention girls, we got 'em!"

"Probably!" Kite-Man quickly added.

"So get over here right now so we can have a chat with Mr. Anarky one on one." Harley said. "Oh and be ready for the Bat-Brats to show up. We might have to take care of those guys."

"On it, we'll be right over." Selina's voice replied from the other end.

"So, um, how do I get across the building exactly?" Harley asked. "I know you two have your glidey things but, um, I don't."

"Well one of us could carry you." Kite-Man suggested.

"You take care of it, Kite. I've got a way for us to bust into the building without making too much damage." Killer Moth said. "I'll need both hands for it."

"Ooh, Mr. Moth's bein' fancy!" Harley giggled.

"Oh, shut up." Killer Moth rolled his eyes beneath his mask.

"Heh, didn't realize a guy dressed up like a giant bug would take himself so seriously." Harley smiled at Killer Moth and playfully poked a thim.

"Let's just do this, alright?" Killer Moth sighed.

"On it!" Harley cheered. "Kite-Man, pick me up. And don't get grabby by the way, there are ways for you to hold onto me that don't involve squeezin' my boobs."

"Hey, I wasn't thinking about it until you said it." Kite-Man said.

"Stop talking and start moving." Killer Moth said.

"Right!" Harley cheered. "Let's go!"

With that the three of them all began to make their way across to Wayne Tower. Killer Moth pressed a button on his suit that extended a pair of mothlike wings functioning as a hang glider from his back. He leaped off the side of the ledge and began gliding towards the tower. Once moth was on his way, Kite-Man wrapped his arms around Harley and leaped forward off the side of the building with her. The two of them glided through the air on Kite-Man's kite shaped parachute.

"Ah jeez! I didn't realize how far up we are!" Harley exclaimed.

"Yeah, just try not to think about it too hard." Kite-Man said. "I got over this kinda thing years ago."

While Harley anxiously clung to Kite-Man, Killer Moth took a small gun off his best and aimed it at the window he was gliding towards. Pulling the trigger, the gun fired off a large amount of a dark grey ooze that solidified in a circular shape after touching the window. He ran right into the window with his shoulder first which caused the substance and the grass to shatter in a circular pattern. He landed on the carpeted office floor, dodging the glass shards.

Kite-Man and Harley flew in through the hole in the window and landed beside Killer Moth. Once she was let go, Harley giggled and gave Killer Moth an excited hug. "Ooh! Fancy work with the window! How'd you do it?"

"It's my cocoon gun." Killer Moth held up the gun he took out. "I can adjust the viscosity and hardness of the cocoons for different situations."

Harley giggled again. "You said hardness…"

"Wow, you're really dedicated to your moth theme, impressive." Kite-Man remarked.

Before the three of them could continue their banter the mechanically filtered voice of Anarky spoke up from the darkness. "What are you idiots doing here?" Out from the darkness stepped Anarky, his golden mask shining in the dim light.

"Oh, hey there!" Harley cheered. "We were lookin' for you."

"Yes… I saw you at the Stacked Deck." Anarky got closer. "What do you want with me exactly?"

"Well, um, would you be interested in joining my team?" Harley asked.

"No. I work alone." Anarky replied bluntly. "And especially not with weirdos like you."

"Aw c'mon, ain't you gonna at least hear me out?" Harley asked, taking a few steps closer to Anarky.

"No." Anarky repeated. "Now go away." He turned around and began walking away. "I need to be prepared for the Bats to show up."

"Ooh, we can help you with those guys! I deal with them all the time." Harley offered.

"Go away!" Anarky turned around, his featureless mask staring back at her. "I don't need your damn help!"

The argument had very little chance to escalate as at that moment, a round device was thrown at Anarky's feet from out of the darkness. A smoke screen emanated from the device, causing everyone to cough.

"Damn, they're here!" Anarky shouted as he attempted to use his large red cloak to fan the smoke away.

Batgirl and Robin had arrived on the scene and were fast to jump into action while they still had the advantage over their foes. Harley felt someone kick her in the stomach, she wasn't quite sure who thanks to the lack of visibility. But because of that, she was knocked onto her back and slid across the office floor.

As the cloud dispersed things quickly became an intense game of hide and seek. Everyone was hiding in the office hoping they could find someone else and take them down before the same thing happened to them. Everyone except Anarky that is who stood in the middle of the office with his electrical sceptre out while constantly turning.

Harley's entire body was kept tight to the floor as she slowly crawled around. She tried to keep her breathing quiet so as not to attract too much attention. The stress of the situation combined with his intentionally constricted movement made her move at a snail's pace.

She made it around a corner where she saw Batgirl crouched down and looking around for any signs of her opponents. Seeing an opportunity to strike, Harley went for it and jumped forward where she landed on top of Batgirl.

"Hehe, I got you Blondie!" Harley giggled while putting her hands over Batgirl's eyes.

"Hey! Get off of me!" Batgirl moved around and managed to get Harley to fall off of her back. "There we go…"

It was right about then that Kite-Man abruptly flew over Batgirl's head after having been apparently hit with some considerable force.

"Hmmph, silly man." Robin sighed as he brushed off his shoulders. "Honestly, that was the best you could do?"

It was then that Anarky emerged from the darkness of the office and swung around his sceptre at Robin. Batgirl saw this and moved quickly, kicking Anarky in the chest and knocking him over.

"I have to say Anarky, I didn't quite see you as someone who'd hire help." Batgirl remarked.

"I didn't ask for their help, they just showed up…" Anarky groaned and began standing up.

Robin delivered another swift kick to the chest, knocking him back down. Before the fight could continue any more Batgirl noticed a light above the elevator and realized it was going up towards their floor. "Someone's coming, could be a guard but it could be backup for Anarky… Robin, you stay here while I check the elevator!"

She hurried to the elevator and took a batarang off her belt. The elevator doors opened to reveal Poison Ivy, Catwoman and Magpie on the other side. Reflexively, Batgirl threw the batarang only for it to be whipped out of the air by Catwoman.

"Nice try." Selina smirked, cracking her whip again for emphasis.

"I think it's time you took a break, darling." Ivy held out a hand and blew on it, sending a cloud of orange powder into Batigirl's. This heavily disoriented her and made her stumble around.

Magpie chuckled and sprung into action, attacking Batgirl with her sharp clawed gloves. "Ha! So this is what it feels like to win!"

Thanks to a combination of Ivy's spores and Magpie's quick attacks Batgirl was taken down. Robin saw this and hurried over to Batgirl to fight the three new opponents. It was around then that Killer Moth decided to come out of his hiding place which just happened to be on the ceiling.

He leaped down from above with his fake wings letting him glide down gracefully and pulled the trigger on his cocoon gun. The greyish substance shot from the gun and hit Robin in the chest, knocking him over. The cocoon quickly hardened, keeping Robin stuck to the ground.

"Hey, we got 'em!" Harley cheered. "Wow, I can't believe we actually did that."

"Glad we could help." Ivy remarked.

All the villains regrouped in the middle of the office together. Harley was excitedly giggling to herself. "Wow that was so much fun!"

"Good thing we got here when we did, it seemed like you were having trouble." Selina remarked.

"Hey, we were doing alright." Kite-Man said. "Y'know, mostly."

"Right…" Ivy chuckled.

Harley kept giggling somewhat uncontrollably and looked over to Anarky. "So whatta you say, big guy? Wanna join our team?"

"Hmmph…" Anarky crossed his arms. "I suppose you have proved yourself to me."

"Yay!" Harley cheered. "Welcome to the team!" In her excitement she hugged Anarky only for him to struggle against her.

"Let go of me, you weirdo…" Anarky sighed.

"Is she always like this?" Killer Moth glanced at the other girls.

"Kinda. Tonight she seems extra excited though." Ivy said.

Harley kept hugging Anarky until it seemed she knocked something over. It became quickly apparent that Anarky was not as tall as he appeared to be. Like the Great and Powerful Oz it was all trickery. Once it landed on the ground it appeared that Anarky's great height was just a wire frame with a golden mask on it and a red cloak and hat draped over the top. Once that all was gone all that was left was an average looking kid who couldn't have been more than fourteen.

"You… You're a kid." Harley said.

"Yeah, so what?" Anarky crossed his arms.

"I thought everyone knew that." Selina smirked. "Big bad Anarky is just some kid in a costume."

"Jeez, I dunno if we should be gettin' kids involved in our group…" Harley thought for a moment.

"Hey! I'm just as capable as you guys!" Anarky argued. "C'mon, I hate those big crime syndicates too. You people may not be the ones I want to associate with but… Well, enemy of my enemy I guess."

"Alright fine, you're in. But you should go home." Harley told him. "It's probably way past your bedtime." She turned around and began walking away. "But don't worry, we'll be in touch." She gestured for the others to follow her. "C'mon, I wanna get some rest too… We've got some big plans to make for the future." As Harley walked out of the room there was a big smile on her face and a gleam in her eyes. She knew that this was merely the beginning.


	5. Circle of Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **This Chapter's Featured Characters:**
> 
> **Riddler:** Edward Nygma alias the Riddler, convinced he is the smartest man alive often puts together elaborate plans to prove his intellect.
> 
> **Mr. Freeze:** Dr. Victor Fries alias Mr. Freeze, a former cryogenics scientist with a terminally ill wife whom he froze. Following an accident, Victor found himself to go outside of subzero temperatures and turned to a life of crime to cure his wife Nora.
> 
> **Mad Hatter:** Jervis Tetch alias Mad Hatter, an expert in hypnosis with an obsession with the works of Lewis Carroll. Often has elaborate plans to live out his own version of the events of Alice in Wonderland.
> 
> **Scarecrow:** Jonathan Crane alias Scarecrow, a former professor of psychology with an obsession with fear. After being fired from his position at the university, Crane turned to a life of crime in some strange attempt to study fear.
> 
> **Hugo Strange:** Professor Hugo Strange is a former psychologist working at Arkham Asylum. He has a strange obsession with Batman and has on at least one occasion attempted to replace him. He also has a special serum he concocted that turns regular people into things he calls "Monster Men".
> 
> **Cluemaster:** Arthur Brown alias Cluemaster, a former game show host who turned to petty crime after his show was cancelled. Father of Stephanie Brown, who initially became a superhero specifically to stop her villainous father.

It had been a few days since Harley formed her very small team to combat Gotham's gang problem. Not because she cared about stopping crimes of course. She just didn't like the way they were committing crimes. She'd made some contact with her own new members since their recruitment but she was still in what would be called the planning stage.

Of course at this point the planning stage meant lying in bed at 9 AM when Magpie and Selina were already awake and being gently awoken by the smell of breakfast. Harley stirred in bed and yawned a little, realizing she was nuzzled up against Ivy already. "Hmm… G'morning Pam…"

"Morning Harls, just waking up too, eh?" Ivy smiled back.

"Yeah… I gotta stop sleepin' in." Harley nodded as she gave Ivy a kiss and sat up on the couch-bed.

"Look on the bright side, at least that means we don't have to worry about breakfast." Ivy sat up as well. "Selina's always kind enough to take care of it."

"Hey, don't push my generosity." Selina chuckled from over in the kitchen.

"Aww, alright… I'm gonna be less of a lazybones now…" Harley giggled. She gave Ivy a kiss on the cheek and got off of the couch-bed. As she made her way to the kitchen she hummed to herself and gave a polite nod to Selina as she saw her serving a plate of buttered toast and scrambled eggs. "Mmm, looks yummy."

Ivy soon joined Harley at the table and helped herself to some breakfast before sitting down at the table. "Now this is how I want to start every day. Hot plate of breakfast next to a beautiful woman."

"Yeah! Only thing that could make it better is some coffee." Harley said.

"The coffee pot's on the counter. Help yourself." Magpie replied.

"Ooh, thanks, I'll go get some." Harley stood up again and made her way over to the counter to get some coffee.

While that was happening a knock came from the front door. Magpie looked around for a moment before speaking up. "I'll go check who that was."

"If they're trying to sell you something, slam the door in their face." Ivy said.

Magpie stood up from her chair and went over to the front door to see who was there. The others kept up eating breakfast quietly while Magpie went to the door. However, mere moments later, they were distracted from their quiet morning by Magpie suddenly screaming.

"Ahhh! Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Magpie shouted from over by the door. "Girls! Get over here!"

In a bit of a panic, Harley, Ivy and Selina all hurry over to the front door to see what the hell was going on.

When they get over to the front door they see Magpie backed up against the wall and an envelope that had been slipped under the door.

"Maggie, what are you freaking out about now?" Selina asked.

"Look at the letter we got." Magpie said, pointing wildly at the envelope.

Selina got closer and looked down at it and realized that the envelope was green and had a purple question mark painted on it. "Oh? So the Riddler sent this?"

"Why are you freaking out?" Harley asked.

"Because… It could be booby trapped." Magpie said before quickly noticing Harley giggling. "Yes Harley, I said booby. But this is serious!"

"Trust me, traps like that aren't the Riddler's style." Selina shook her head. "All that's gonna be inside that envelope is some stupid riddle he wrote." She casually went over to the envelope and picked it up. "What do you think? Should I throw it out?"

"Open it up, I wanna see what's inside!" Harley giggled.

"I'm curious too." Ivy nodded.

"Alright, c'mon, let's go open it." Selina nodded, going back to the dining room.

Magpie heaved a sigh of relief and followed the others. "Sorry about freaking out… I'm kinda on edge."

"Too much coffee?" Ivy smirked.

"Yeah, that'd do it." Magpie nodded as they all sat back down at the dining table.

"Okay, let' see what we've got in here now." Selina casually opened up the envelope and took folded piece of paper out. Unfolding it, it became clear a message was written on it. "Hmm… All it says is 'We have a mutual enemy'. And then a bunch of numbers…"

"Let me see that." Ivy requested and Selina handed over the note. Sure enough, written in purple ink was the single sentence 'We have a mutual enemy' followed by a series of numbers written below it. "Wait a minute… I think these might be coordinates."

"To where?" Harley asked.

"Well, let's find out." Ivy said. "The downfall of Riddler in this modern age is that almost anything he comes up with can be solved with the power of the internet. So if we just put these coordinates into a GPS, we'll know exactly where to go."

"What if he's counting on that?" Selina remarked.

"What do you mean?" Magpie asked.

"I mean, what if it's a trap?" Selina suggested. "For Riddler, this kind of clue seems a bit too straightforward."

Poison Ivy nodded along. "I was considering that myself. We'll have to take precautions." She glanced over at Harley. "Call up our new friends, they should be able to help… Even if I don't quite approve of them."

"Sure thing, I'll give 'em a call." Harley nodded. "And don't worry Red, they're very trustworthy people."

"It's not that I don't trust them." Ivy said. "It's that, well, they don't seem very competent. One's gimmick amounts to a hang glider, the other just has a cocoon gun and the last one is a fourteen year old kid."

"Hey, Anarky was able to prove himself." Harley said. "So that's one outta three."

While the two of them were talking, Magpie had picked up the letter from Riddler they'd received and was inspecting it. She flipped over the piece of paper and saw more written on the back of it. A simple message, just the word 'Tonight!' written down.

"Hey, uh, guys." Magpie spoke up. "We'd better decide if we're going or not. It looks like whatever's going down is happening tonight."

"Hmmm… I say we go." Harley said. "What's the worst that could happen?"

*******

That night, at a little past 10 PM, Harley, the girls and the three new members of their crew had arrived at where the coordinates led them. Specifically, they had found an old abandoned movie theatre that was scheduled for demolition in a few months.

"I'm still not sure about this…" Ivy sighed as they approached the building from the alley to avoid calling attention to themselves. "It feels too easy, like it's a trap."

"Like I said Pam, even if it is a trap, we've got safety in numbers." Harley glanced over her shoulder at the rest of her team. "Ain't that right?"

"Yeah, whatever's in there, we totally got it." Kite-Man confidently nodded.

"Somehow, the man with a kite strapped to his back does not fill me with confidence." Ivy sighed.

"Look, Ivy, try to stay optimistic for once okay?" Selina smiled. "I think this just might go well for us."

With that, Harley pushed forward, opening the side door and finding herself in the dusty old corridor of the theatre. It smelled like it hadn't been cleaned for a long time but she ignored that as she and her friends continued down the hall into the theatre.

As they walked along, Harley noticed several green arrows painted on the walls that looked like they'd been added recently. They stood out in contrast to the crumbling walls as almost untouched.

"Looks like Riddler's tellin' us where to go." Harley remarked.

"Should we follow it?" Killer Moth asked.

Magpie bit her lip. "I dunno… I've got a bad feeling about this…"

"Oh, stop being so afraid. Am I the only serious one here?" Anarky spoke up as he pushed his way to the front of the group. "Riddler doesn't kill people for no reason. And we have done nothing to upset him. Whatever the reason he sent us here, it's not to kill us."

"The kid makes a good point." Selina nodded. "I say we keep going."

Harley nodded too and kept walking. "Right… Let's just follow the arrows and see where they take us."

With that she began walking down the hallway, following the arrows and beckoning her friends to follow her. They walked down the hall, seeing the arrows grow more numerous as they went.

The corridor eventually emerged into an open room which Harley quickly realized was the old lobby of the boarded up theatre. Only it had been converted somewhat. At the centre of the room was a large circular table and a chandelier had been installed above it to make the place look somewhat sophisticated.

And of course, sitting at this table was the Riddler himself, dressed in his green suit, matching derby hat and purple tie. However, it was also clear that the Riddler was not the only one in attendance at this gathering.

Also at the table was Mr. Freeze, dressed in his metallic armour/containment suit. As was usual for him, he had a stern, stoic look on his face. Beside Mr. Freeze sat the diminutive Mad Hatter with his two large henchmen Tweedledee and Tweedledum standing on either side of him.

Across the table from those two sat a bald bespectacled man with a prominent chinstrap beard. Harley recognized him from back when she was a legitimate psychiatrist. He was Hugo Strange, a man with an interest in psychology who had taken to genetic experimentation which eventually landed him a spot in Gotham's criminal underbelly.

Sitting to Strange's right was a tall, scrawny man dressed entirely in burlap rags. He was Dr. Jonathan Crane but most called him the Scarecrow. He'd always creeped Harley out somewhat so needless to say she was not a fan of his presence here.

Finally, to Strange's left was the final person at the table. A blonde man in a orange spandex suit who went by the name Cluemaster. He wasn't taken too seriously by Gotham's criminals on account of most of them as a second rate Riddler copycat. Not to mention there were rumours he was the father of the current Batgirl floating around.

Seeing this eclectic criminal gathering, Harley continued walking forward and politely waved to the table. "Um, hey everyone. I hope I'm not late."

"Not at all Ms. Quinzel. In fact, I'm glad you're here." Riddler politely nodded as he saw her enter. He tilted his head a bit when he saw the others exit after her. "Erm, all of you. I didn't realize there were that many of you living there. That letter I sent was only intended for you and Ms. Isley."

"Uh, should the rest of us leave then?" Killer Moth spoke up.

"No, no, please stay." Riddler said. "We have strength in numbers. We only have two more chairs though. The rest of you will have to stand."

"Fine by me." Selina nodded.

Harley and Ivy walked up to the table and took the last two remaining seats. They both looked around at the other faces at this strange meeting. After a few moments of silence, Harley spoke up. "Okay, so what exactly is all this stuff? I'm kinda… Not gettin' it."

"Well, now that everyone is here, we can begin." Riddler said. "You see, all of us have a common enemy. I'm sure we're all well aware of the clash in organized crime here in Gotham. Frankly, I am not a fan of it. It makes it difficult for things to get done my way. So what I'm doing here is forming a group of people to help get rid of them."

"Hey, that's what I was doin' before i got your little." Harley remarked. "Ain't that a coincidence."

"Well, I'm glad to see our interests are aligning already." Riddler chuckled. "What say the rest of you? Are you interested?"

"I am tired of Black Mask and Two-Face's thugs coming to bother me at my lair." Mr. Freeze nodded. "I am close to curing Nora and they are making it very difficult."

"Yes… They keep trying to get me to join them." Mad Hatter said. "But we don't want any part in their silly games."

"Good, it appears we're all on the same page then." Riddler nodded and leaned forward on the table. "I'd like to form a group with you all. We'll pool our resources together and all be unstoppable."

"I see… And would you be the leader of this hypothetical group?" Scarecrow asked. "I know you have a bit of an ego, Riddler."

"Guilty as charged." Riddler chuckled. "But no, I'm trying something different this time. This group of ours will be more… Democratic."

"Good, I'm glad to see you're willing to be more cooperative Mr. Nygma." Hugo Strange nodded.

"So is this official? Are we a team?" Harley excitedly leaned on the table. "Cause if we're a team we need a cool team name. I was kinda workshoppin' some names for my own team earlier today. Wanna hear them?"

"No thank you Ms. Quinzel, that won't be necessary." Riddler replied. "I have plenty of plans for us. So everyone, are you all in?"

"Hell yeah I am!" Harley giggled. "What about you, Red?"

"Sure thing." Ivy nodded. "I think this should be an interesting venture. But if you try and cross us, you'll find it to be a regrettable decision." She glared at Riddler.

"Now, now Ms. Isley, no need for hostility." Riddler chuckled. "We can all get along here."

"I don't work with people…" Mr. Freeze sighed. "But… If you're all willing to stay out of my way, I will be willing to help."

"Yes, I'm very excited to be part of this group." Mad Hatter agreed. "Isn't that right boys?" He looked up at Dee and Dum.

"Um, yes sir." Tweedledee nodded.

"Wonderful, simple wonderful." Riddler nodded. He looked over to the other side of the table. "Question for you Cluemaster… You've been quiet. Tell me, do you want to be part of our group?"

"Hmm… No." Cluemaster shook his head. He stood up from his chair. "I don't think I'll be joining your group."

"Oh, what's the matter Arthur? Are you upset that people call you a second rate me?" Riddler smirked at Cluemaster.

"Only partially." Cluemaster muttered somewhat quietly.

"It is kinda true." Harley remarked.

"Oh, shut up." Cluemaster glared at her.

"Hey, she's kinda right." Selina said. "I don't exactly get what you do that makes you different from the Riddler."

"You know what, I don't have to take this." Cluemaster said. "You people are idiots. I'm stronger than everyone else in this room."

"I highly doubt that." Professor Strange chuckled.

Cluemaster groaned and leaned against the table. "You idiots don't get it… I'm not on your side. I'm a sleeper agent, I work for Ventriloquist. She told me that you'd been plotting something and to take you down when I found out what it was."

"Well, you make a second rate supervillain and a second rate double agent." Riddler shook his head. "You're not exactly supposed to just say things like that out lou-"

Riddler was cut off when Cluemaster put his plan into motion. He took several thin, metal rectangles that resembled playing cards out of his pocket and threw them. The people at the table were quick to dodge. Riddler's cheek was lightly grazed by one of the cards while Mad Hatter and Mr. Freeze got out of the way completely.

From that point, things descended into chaos to say the least. The first thing that happened was Cluemaster flipped over the table which knocked over all those on the other side of it while keeping him, Scarecrow and Strange unscathed. After that things essentially turned into a shootout. Or rather it would have if any of the participants had a gun on them.

Harley ended up hiding behind the movie theatre's old snack counter with Ivy, Kite-Man and Anarky while listening to the fighting going on outside.

"So… Um… What happened?" Harley asked.

"Great question, I only understood about half of it." Kite-Man replied.

"I think we should grab the rest of our group and go." Ivy said. "This clearly isn't working out."

"No… We should help the Riddler." Anarky said. "On a personal level, I dislike him. But he could be a beneficial ally."

"Oh shut up, you're fourteen. You don't know anything." Ivy said.

"Hey, don't count him out just 'cause he's a kid." Harley looked over to Ivy. "Besides, I kinda agree with him. Riddler's stuck up and thinks he's smarter than us, but he knows what he's doing. I say we go help him out."

"Alright fine, let's do it." Ivy nodded.

Before their plan could spring into action, Magpie was flung over the top of the counter and landed beside them. "Oh… Hey guys… I'm just gonna lie here for a bit…" She groaned.

"You get your rest, Maggie." Harley giggled and patted Magpie on the head. "We'll take it from here."

Harley took the lead and leapt over the counter with the other three soon following her. Cluemaster was engaged in a fight with Riddler in the middle of the room. Riddler used his decorative cane to defend himself while Cluemaster jabbed at him.

Seeing an opportunity, Harley just decided to go for it and ran towards Cluemaster. Ivy reached out to stop her but she moved too fast for her to do anything. Harley giggled madly to herself as she leaped forward to and tackled Cluemaster to the ground. "Surprise!"

She tackled Cluemaster to the ground and attempted to hold him there. Cluemaster struggled beneath her and managed to get a knife out of his pocket. He tried jabbing her with it only for her to jump off of him and do a backflip just to show off. Cluemaster began to stand up only for Anarky to come onto the scene and hit him with his electric baton, socking Cluemaster with it greatly. He collapsed to the ground while Harley stood up.

Harley laughed to herself and pumped her fists up in the air. "Yeah! We did it! Heh, that guy wasn't so tough." She went over to Riddler and gave him a thumbs up. "You alright?"

"Yes, yes, thank you." Riddler nodded and dusted off his suit.

However, this celebration was short lived when Harley heard the sound of something landing on the ground near her. Looking down, she saw a bomb designed to look like a tiny jack-o-lantern. "What the…"

It soon became clear what the device was when it dispersed a cloud of bright orange gas. Harley and Ivy both coughed from inhaling it but others began to whimper and scream unintelligibly. It was clear that for some reason Scarecrow had deployed his fear gas. Ivy had a natural immunity to the stuff which she'd shared with Harley soon after they'd first met by giving her a special kind of injection. This was because at the time, the place Ivy lived was so toxic a regular human could not have survived there for long.

"Okay, what the hell is going on?" Ivy asked.

The gas became less thick as Scarecrow himself emerged from the cloud. "Cluemaster wasn't the only double agent in this group…" He chuckled to himself. "I've been working for Black Mask. He caught wind of Riddler's scheme and asked me to infiltrate."

"It's a pity that my gas didn't work on you two." Scarecrow sighed. "But still, I have other ways of dealing with enemies."

"Are you kiddin' me?" Harley sighed. "Is everyone here a fuckin' double agent?"

"I know you aren't, which is why I have to neutralize you." Scarecrow took a few steps closer. However, before he could make his next move, Scarecrow felt a blast of cold air coming from behind him and the next thing he knew he was encased in a block of ice.

Mr. Freeze stepped out from a pillar in the theatre he was hiding behind. "Fool… He should have known my containment suit protected me."

"Thanks for the assist, Freezie!" Harley cheered.

"Please tell us you're not a double agent too." Ivy sighed.

"No. My only allegiance is to Nora." Mr. Freeze replied.

"Yeah, I figured." Harley nodded. She looked around at the others, still under the effects of Scarecrow's fear gas. "C'mon, we should keep an eye on these guys. If we're gonna be workin' together we'll have to make sure they're all okay."

"Very well, let's go around and check." Ivy nodded.

Over the next few hours or so, Harley, Ivy and Mr. Freeze tended to the others in the group and helped them come down from the effects of the fear gas. It seemed that in all the chaos Hugo Strange had slipped away but everyone else was still there and in a rather bad state. Most of them were incoherently muttering to themselves, still under the effects of the hallucinogenic gas.

Eventually most of them were able to come back to reality and managed to act normal. Well, as normal as a group of supervillains could be anyway. Riddler set the table right side up again and arranged the chairs around it. With three members of the group incapacitated or missing, Magpie, Selina and Anarky both took the empty places at the table and sat down.

"Alright everyone, glad we got all that sorted out…" Riddler sighed. "Sorry about that whole affair."

"It's fine, we've got it all sorted out. Now haven't we?" Mad Hatter chuckled, glancing at Scarecrow encased in the chunk of melting ice.

"Oh yeah, what are we going to do about them?" Selina asked.

"Well… We could kill them." Ivy pointed out.

"No, no, that won't be necessary." Riddler shook his head. "I hate getting my hands dirty if I don't have to. We'll send them back to their bosses as a warning. That should give them a reason to be afraid of us. Humiliating your opponent is often a more effective tool than killing them."

"Just so we're clear, we're all part of this group together now, right?" Harley spoke up. "And there are no more double agents?"

"We're all on the same side now." Mad Hatter nodded.

"Good." Riddler nodded. "I've got a very good feeling about this new working relationship."

Of course, while Harley and the others celebrated their new partnership, little did they know that on the other side of the city Hugo Strange had just arrived in the head offices of the Iceberg Lounge. The Penguin was there seated at his desk while Maxie Zeus and Two-Face were away.

"What the devil happened to you, Strange" Penguin asked. "You look more shaken than usual."

"Just a run in with Scarecrow, nothing to be concerned about." Strange straightened out his necktie.

"So what brings you here then. Did you get the job done?"

"Oh yes, I did. It's just as Mr. Dent suspected. The Riddler is plotting against us."

"Hmm… Good work. I suppose we'll have to counter this somehow."


	6. Spiderwebs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Today's Featured Character:**
> 
> **Black Spider:** Eric Needham aka Black Spider is a former drug addict who cleaned up his act and began to extract violent revenge on drug dealers and smugglers much to the disapproval of Batman. Not technically a villain, but never officially considered a hero either. Outside of the comics he appeared in Young Justice (Where he was basically just Evil Spider-Man) and Suicide Squad: Assault on Arkham (Which I have not watched).

The days following Harley's agreement with the Riddler had been rather odd to say the least. The first order of business after joining up with him was establishing a hideout. Since several of their enemies already knew about the abandoned theatre Riddler was set up in he was very quick to leave. This was very wise as the very next night it burned down under mysterious circumstances.

The base of operations was instead moved to an old strip club where the basement had been converted into a giant freezer by Mr. Freeze. Riddler didn't quite approve of the location and truth be told neither did Mr. Freeze but he said it was the most available to him. So until further notice this was where meetings would be held.

Most of the time Riddler communicated through emails and phone calls and had yet to actually request an in person meeting. At least, that was until one particular Sunday morning when Harley woke up to well composed email requesting all members of his group to meet up with him at Mr. Freeze's lair. Harley hadn't been doing much else that day so she jumped at the opportunity for some fun, no matter what it was.

Harley informed the rest of the girls about Riddler's update and from there all of them went out to go meet up with him. As it so happened, Mr. Freeze's strip club/converted cryogenics lab was in the same neighborhood as Selina's apartment and took only about twenty minutes to arrive at.

"Hey everyone, how's it hangin'?" Harley asked as she entered the hideout with Selina, Magpie and Ivy coming behind her. It seemed that Riddler, Mad Hatter and Mr. Freeze were all already there.

"Ms. Quinzel, good to see you." Riddler nodded at her. "Where are your friends? The moth and the kite guy? Oh, and that weird little anarchist guy."

"Oh, they'll be here soon. We gave 'em a call." Harley said. She wandered over to the remains of what used to be a DJ booth. "Say, does this place have any music? It could liven the mood up a bit."

"I have a record player somewhere around here." Mr. Freeze said.

"Awesome! If ya find it, let me know!" Harley cheered.

Riddler cleared his throat to get the attention of the others. "Ahem, if I may… I'd like to begin today's meeting."

"What about Ms. Quinn's odd little friends?" Mad Hatter asked.

"Oh, we'll catch them up later." Riddler shakes his head. "Just try not to worry about it, okay?" He gestured to a small grouping of tables in front of the club's bar. "Everyone, please sit down here and pay attention."

With that the others gathered up at the tables while Riddler got behind the bar and pulled down a projection sheet. He took a remote out of his pocket and pressed a button on it. This activated a projector set up behind Harley and the others. Onto the screen it projected a slide with only two words written on it 'The Plan'.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I do believe our group needs more members." Riddler explained. "Our team is formidable enough already but, I do believe there is one last person I'd like to have join our little group."

"And who would that be?" Selina asked.

"Yeah, I feel like we're good enough as is." Ivy nodded.

"We are, but we have to remember who we're up against." Riddler said. "These are very dangerous people with lots of resources. There is great safety in numbers. And so I present to you our newest member…" He pressed a button on the remote again and it moved to a second slide. It showed a police mugshot of a young African-American man side by side with a lower quality photo of a man dressed in a form fitting black bodysuit with a mask that covered his entire face. An emblem of a red spider was on the costume's forehead. "Meet Eric Needham, alias the Black Spider. Mr. Needham here considers himself somewhat of a hero. He doesn't have much time for colourful costume crooks like us. He targets drug dealers and smugglers, often to violent and lethal extremes. I'm guessing he's not a fan of the new gang wars going on in Gotham."

"Hmm… He could be useful." Ivy agreed. "Do you think he'd want to work with us?"

"Not quite… He avoids teaming up with other people. A regular lone wolf." Riddler said. "However, with the right kind of persuasion, anyone can change their mind." He turned off the projector and turned up the lights. "Now, the first order of business is tracking down Mr. Needham. Typically he moves around town, never staying in one place too long. But no man is invisible in this day and age. Now, once we find him I want you three to talk to him." He pointed out to his audience, first at Harley, then at Ivy and finally at Selina.

"Why us?" Harley asked.

"Well, erm, I hope I don't offend you at all but…" Riddler trailed off, trying to think of how to phrase himself. "The three of you all have certain attributes that men find appealing. Because of this, well, we think you all have a good chance of convincing Needham to join us. And failing that, I'll just get Jervis to hypnotize him."

"Right, so in other words we have tits and we can manipulate guys with them." Selina smirked.

"Uh, essentially, yes." Riddler admitted.

"Wait a minute!" Magpie suddenly stood up from her chair. "Do you not think I'm attractive?"

"Hmm? What?" Riddler asked.

"Why am I not invited to seduce this spider guy? Do you guys think I'm not pretty enough?" Magpie self consciously looked down at herself.

"No, no, Ms. Pye, I think you misunderstand. I simply worried that sending all four of you over there to talk to Mr. Needham would come off as suspicious." Riddler explained. "Believe me, you are incredibly attractive."

"Th- Thank you." Magpie nervously nodded and sat back down.

Selina gleaned over at Magpie then back to Riddler before speaking up. "Tell you what, let's just send in two of us in at first. If Black Spider isn't being cooperative, the other two will be the backup. How's that?"

"Sure, it still seems like a reasonable plan." Riddler nodded. "For now, you can return to business as usual. I'll update you when we're able to find Needham. It should be fairly soon."

"Well, we should be available then." Harley nodded. "I ain't exactly got much planned for the day."

"This works out wonderfully then." Riddler nodded. "I'll likely be sending you the information you need tonight. See you then."

*******

From there the day went on as planned for the girls. They returned to Selina's apartment where they did their best to relax. The four of them ended up watching some movies together and just generally hanging out around the apartment. At around 7 PM, they received a phone call from the Riddler informing them that the Black Spider was tracked down to his last known location to a shady motel on Gotham's southside, near the bay.

The four women drove down to the location and once they did they decided to try their best to look inconspicuous by taking a seat at a cafe across the street from the motel while they made plans. All four girls ordered themselves some coffee to keep them alert for the upcoming mission. Harley also decided to get herself a blueberry muffin to snack on as well.

"So girls, what's the plan for dealing with Black Spider?" Harley asked through a mouthful of muffin.

"Well… I think I should probably hang back at first." Ivy admitted. "My unnatural skintone is likely to stand out. Yours too Harley. But there are a lot more pale girls out there than there are green girls."

"Hmm, good point." Harley said. "But I'd like to go in first, I like messin' with guys."

"Indeed." Selina smirked. "It's fun to tease them. I'd like to go with you."

"Works for me." Magpie nodded. "I don't really have much experience doing the seducing thing."

"Alright, then it's settled." Harley nodded. "Me 'n Selina will go in and do our thing and if that doesn't work out you two can be our backup."

"I'm gonna go put on my catsuit." Selina smirked. "Guys go crazy over girls in tight clothes."

"Ooh great idea! I'm glad I packed my jester suit, I'll go change into that." Harley smiled.

"We'll wait here." Ivy said. "And we'll be keeping an eye on you if you need us."

After finishing their coffee and muffin, Harley and Selina went back to Selina's car and got changed into their respective costumes. Once appropriately dressed, the two of them went over to the motel and found the room number Riddler told them about.

As they approached the door Harley couldn't help but giggle in excitement. "Y'know, it's been way too long since I got a chance to seduce someone." She thought for a moment. "Well, that ain't totally true. I seduce Pammy all the time. But she's my girlfriend so it's different."

"Well, this should be a fun refresher course for you." Selina smirked as she unzipped her catsuit, exposing a considerable amount of cleavage. Once that was done, she knocked on the front door of the motel room and waited for a response. A few moments later the door cracked open slightly and out from it looked a man who matched the photograph they'd seen earlier.

"Hello?" the man inside said, seeming confused. "Who are you?"

"You're Eric, right?" Selina smiled at him. "A friend sent the two of us over to check in on you and have a little chat. May we come in?" She leaned forward more, intentionally making sure he got a good eyeful of her cleavage.

Eric was momentarily flustered by this but quickly regained his composure. "Look, I know who you girls are. You're supervillains, right? Or at the very least, very convincing impersonators. I want to know what the hell you're doing here."

"Now, now, no need for hostility here." Selina chuckled. "We just came over to chat. We mean you no harm if that's what you're worried about."

"Yeah, c'mon big guy! We just wanna talk." Harley added.

Eric paused for a moment, looking over the both of them. His eyes lingered on Selina's breasts which she took notice of. After a few more moments of silence he spoke up. "Fine. Come in. But don't stay too long. I have places to be tonight." The door opened all the way, revealing the rather shabby interior of the motel.

He turned around as Selina and Harley entered. Harley hummed to herself a little and decided to strike up some small talk. "So Eric, you havin' a nice night?"

"As well as I can." Eric took a seat on the edge of his bed. "Look, girls, can you just get to business. You obviously have some ulterior motives for being here."

"How can you tell?" Selina smirked. "Maybe we're just two friendly women who like making new friends?" She got closer to him, reaching forward and put a hand on his leg.

"Somehow I find that unlikely." Eric looked her straight in the eye. "Be honest with me, what do you want here?"

"Aww, someone's grumpy." Harley giggled and sat down on the bed beside Eric. She put a hand on his shoulder. "C'mon, don'cha ever wanna loosen up? Have some fun? You look gloomier than the big bad Bat."

"Don't talk to me about Batman." Eric said. "Not a fan of him."

"Yeah us bad guys don't like him much." Harley nodded, reaching up to touch his shoulders. "We can all agree about that."

Eric looked over to Harley and glared at him. "I am not a bad guy, as you put it. I help people. I do things Batman is too weak to."

"Right…" Selina trailed off, chuckling a little. "I think you take yourself a bit too seriously."

"Maybe you don't take yourself seriously enough." Eric glared at them.

"Look, Spider-Guy, we've been dancing around the question for way too long." Harley giggled and lay down on the bed, stretching out. "We were sent here by the Riddler and, well, we got a bit of a mutual problem."

"A mutual problem?" Eric repeated.

"Oh, so now you're listening." Selina chuckled, squeezing his leg and leaning in some more.

While Selina and Harley were inside the motel sweet talking Black Spider, Magpie and Ivy were waiting in the parking lot inside Selina's car. Ivy sat in the backseat, still sipping on her coffee while Magpie sat in the front with a pair of binoculars in an attempt to peep into Black Spider's room.

"So Margaret, see anything?" Ivy asked as she nursed her coffee.

"No…" Magpie shook her head. "Damn blinds are closed."

"Well I'm sure if the girls need help we'll know." Ivy said.

"Yeah I guess…" Magpie sighed. She put down her binoculars and looked back at Ivy. "Hey, Pamela, am I attractive?"

"Are you still stuck on that?" Ivy asked.

"A little, yeah." Magpie admitted. "I… I like feeling pretty." She let out another sigh and turned around in her chair. "C'mon Ivy, please tell me…"

"Magpie, you are a beautiful woman." Ivy said. "I think that's just objective. You're incredibly athletic, you have very soft looking skin and, well, not to be crass but you have some other very noticeable assets." She gestured to Magpie's chest.

"Thank you…" Magpie smiled at Ivy. "I like it when I'm told I'm pretty. You're very pretty Ivy."

"Are you hitting on me?" Ivy asked with a smirk.

"What? No, no no, of course not." Magpie shook her head. "I know you and Harley are an item. Plus I'm straight."

"I thought you and Selina were together?" Ivy asked.

"It's… She's the only girl I'd do that kinda stuff with. It's special with her." Magpie found herself blushing a little.

"However you want to define yourself it's none of my business." Ivy shrugged and took a sip of her coffee.

Magpie picked up her binoculars and looked through them again. This time she saw something different. The blinds to Black Spider's room were open. She saw Harley standing in the window and waving down at them.

"Oh, Ivy, it looks like Harley's trying to get our attention." Magpie said, glancing back at Ivy. "C'mon, let's go."

"Ah, finally, some excitement." Ivy smiled and stood up. "Let's get moving."

The two women exited the car with Magpie locking the vehicle behind them. They went up to the motel's second floor and found the room Black Spider was renting out. Ivy decided to take the lead and knocked at the door.

Soon enough, Harley opened up the door with a big grin on her face. "Hey ya girls! Great to see you. I think we're makin' progress with this guy. He seems interested in our group. Figured we'd invite you up."

"Thank you very much Harley, how thoughtful of you." Ivy nodded as she entered. Once inside she saw Eric in the midst of putting on his Black Spider costume. "Okay… What's going on here?"

"I'd like to come down to your hideout, meet your boss." Eric replied. "These two have explained their proposal to me. Frankly… I'm not sure how to feel about working with the likes of you."

"Aww c'mon, don't you trust us." Selina smirked at him, leaning in again.

"I'm not playing your temptress game, cat." Eric sighed as he zipped up his suit. "Now then, let's prepare to leave." He then put his mask over his face. "Well, what are you waiting for, let's go."

A mere forty five minutes later, the girls and Black Spider had gotten into Selina's car and driven across town back to Riddler's new hideout. When they first parked outside Eric was a bit taken aback. When he heard they were taking him back to Riddler's hideout. He was not expecting to see a boarded up old strip club.

"Is this seriously where you guys are holding up?" Black Spider asked.

"It's, um, better on the inside." Harley said.

"Oh come on Eric, you're a sensible man. Doesn't part of you get turned on just at the idea of a strip club?" Selina leaned in beside him and ran her hand along his thigh. "You're surrounded by four very attractive women… You don't have to pretend to be all stoic for us."

"I'm not pretending…" Black Spider quietly muttered, remaining completely still.

"Sure you aren't…" Selina leaned in, still rubbing her hand against his thigh and showing off her cleavage once more. "Admit it, I'm turning you on. I bet you're getting a little hard now, aren't you?"

"You know you don't have to keep doing that, Selina." Ivy said. "He agreed to come with us."

"Oh, I know." Selina nodded. "I just think it's fun to tease men. Women too actually." She looked over her shoulder at Magpie and gave her a wink.

"Look, let's just go in and explain the situation to Riddler." Ivy said as she opened up the car door.

"Right, let's go!" Harley cheered as she began exiting as well. Soon enough the four women left the car with Black Spider following them. The group entered the club from the side with Harley excitedly taking the lead.

"Hey Nygma, we're back!" Harley cheered. "We brought a new friend over!"

Riddler was sitting behind the bar pouring over some papers, occasionally jotting down a note. Seeing the girls enter, he glanced up at them. "Oh, hello girls. Good to see you."

"We got the spider!" Harley giggled excitedly.

Riddler peeked up from his papers and smiled when he saw Black Spider entering behind the girls. "Ah, so wonderful to see you Mr. Needham. I trust the girls have explained things to you?"

"More or less." Black Spider nodded. "This one just keeps trying to hit on me." He pointed over to Selina. "But I think I understand. You want me to help you in taking out competition."

"No, no, not competition exactly." Riddler chuckled. "Frankly, I don't like organized crime. You see, well, I prefer big complicated tests of wit meant to get revenge on those who slighted me years ago. All those gunrunners and drug smugglers, they're not my style. And the more of them in the city the harder it is to operate."

"They're the lowest form of scum." Black Spider nodded. "They poison this great city. I can tolerate costumed weirdos like you people. But people like Black Mask or Two-Face, their gangs prey on the weak and innocent."

"Well, good for you. A strong moral compass is what we need in this day and age." Riddler said. "So are you interested in joining us?"

"Yes." Black Spider nodded. "But there will need to be a few rules I expect you people to follow."

"And what would those be?" Riddler asked.

"Three simple rules. We will not hurt or kill any innocent people." Black Spider began. "We do not steal for only personal gain. And if one of us is apprehended by the police, we will work together to break each other out."

"Aren't you noble?" Riddler chuckled. "Alright Mr. Needham, I'll agree to your rules. I try to avoid killing anyway. Welcome to the team." He held out a hand for him to shake.

Black Spider paused before shaking back reluctantly. "Don't make me regret this, Riddler."

"Oh trust me, you won't." Riddler nodded.

*******

Several hours later, Riddler and Black Spider had gone through some rather boring negotiations that the girls were forced to sit through. But once they ended, they found themselves back at Selina's apartment.

Things were beginning to wind down. Magpie was in the bathroom brushing her teeth while Selina had already changed into her sleeping clothes and was in her bedroom. Harley and Ivy were both cuddled up on the couch together watching a late night rerun of Gilligan's Island.

"Hmm… You know, I'm just gonna say it, Ginger is really sexy." Harley giggled while watching the show.

"Guess you've always had a thing for redheads, huh?" Ivy chuckled and playfully held Harley closer to her.

"Ah c'mon, you were thinkin' it too." Harley smirked at Ivy.

"Fair enough." Ivy nodded.

The two of them continued watching TV in silence for a few more minutes until they heard the water in the bathroom turn off and saw Magpie stepping out. "Hey girls, bathroom's all yours if you need it."

"Thank you kindly." Harley nodded as Magpie went to join Selina in her bedroom.

Ivy stood up and glanced over to Harley. "Well, I'll be in the bathroom if you need me."

"Alrighty! I'll let'cha know how the episode goes." Harley nodded. She paused for a moment before looking back to Ivy. "Hey Red, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"Do ya think this is all a good idea? The whole thing with the Riddler and the gangs."

"I don't think I get what you mean."

Harley sighed. "I just thought that once we got back to Gotham things would calm down."

Ivy chuckled and shook her head. "Things don't ever seem to do that here. But you can look on the bright side."

"Yeah, we'll always have each other." Harley found herself blushing a bit as she looked up at Ivy. "Well, let's get ready for bed. I dunno what'll happen next with all this gang stuff but I think things'll be alright in the end…"


End file.
